


Take a Hint

by VoltageStone



Series: Volt's Completed: Jori [6]
Category: Victorious
Genre: F/F, Future-fic, Jori - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-06
Updated: 2017-01-06
Packaged: 2021-03-01 05:54:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 38,508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23389864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VoltageStone/pseuds/VoltageStone
Summary: Jade West is now a starting director and writer on her way to success. As some problems rise in her personal life, she contemplated the mistakes and chances she had with Tori Vega. Now she starts on a new movie which may bring another last chance. Question is, will it be taken or glanced over?
Relationships: Tori Vega/Jade West
Series: Volt's Completed: Jori [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1682377
Comments: 1
Kudos: 26





	1. Chapter 1

** Jade's P.O.V **

My teeth clench together as I hear the sound of tapping feet. Normally I don't mind it; but the ten minutes at this coffee shop is slowly driving me over the edge. The only reason why I won't just leave is because a), I am the next person up for coffee and b), I _need_ that damn coffee.

"Next person in line," rings in my ears, flicking my eyes over to the young girl waiting for me to move over. I look up and took a few quiet steps over. She grins at me shyly as I stare at the board momentarily with a brown apron draping from her neck.

"Black with two sugars," I mutter tiredly and she nods, typing in the order. As the two of us waits for the hot drink, the young girl tries to make small conversation.

"I just want to say I'm a big fan of your movies."

"Oh yeah?" I ask politely.

"Not man people direct the way you do miss," she smiles kindly, "Oh, here's your drink." Once my drink was handed over, I paid for the few dollars it cost and began to find my seat. After a sip or two and some deciding, I choose one in the back far away from the karaoke. This place was unusual for a restaurant, I frown slightly. There's all the breakfast and lunch menus mashed as one and then there is always songs playing by just random strangers.

So far, none of the singers had any talent and I really tried hard not to just snap at them. Here's the thing though, I have started to become recognized for my work like the young girl, and I _have to_ keep my name clear of anything unprofessional. That's usually an easy thing to do, but I swear there are some days like this one where I wake up and I just think 'fuck, I have to actually live today...'

One or two sip into the coffee, maybe three, my face pulls into a grimace once I realized that this wasn't the best coffee. However, once I recalled how cheap it was and how long it took me to actually get it, I just shrug and take another sip. My mouth almost recoiled from the sudden pain to my tongue, and I gasp slightly, putting my drink down. With nothing really to do, I just kind of zone out a bit, forgetting my scheduled plans.

My ears perk at the new song playing, and my head almost spins around hurriedly, before I'm somewhat disappointed with the two blondes just enjoying themselves. A hot beverage sneaks back up to my lips as I began to remember Vega as I so often did yet I constantly tried to forget. 'Course, I can't. Because it all started that one night, well not _all_ exactly, and the song plays into my memory.

-o0o-

"So... what do you want for food Jade?" she asked as I gazed over the menu. I just glanced at her, annoyed that I actually came her and wouldn't be able to leave for several hours. "Don't look at me! Sikowitz was the one that sent us here to go on our 'date', not me. And there's no stairs here."

My eyes rolled sourly as I gazed back down at the menu, muttering, "White rice."

"That's it?"

"Yes Vega, all I want is the damn rice."

"Just a bow of white rice," her voice trailed off as she turned over to her oversized laminated paper. My stare momentarily lingered, eyes dripping down lower until I forced myself to pull away. _The hell was that Jade? You're not going to take this date seriously now come on!,_ my thoughts hammered against my skull. I didn't know what was worse at that point, I was stuck here with Vega or I was stuck here with Vega pretty much alone.

Actually, I guess they're kind of the same thing, aren't they.

A few minutes later, my bowl or rice comes along and I gritted my teeth as Vega slurped on the soup noisily. "Do that one more time and I swear I will bite your head off," I growled.

"Well then you'll have something to go with your white rice," she muttered back. A few more mouthfuls of apparently delicious soup go by until I couldn't take it anymore.

" _NO_!" I barked viciously. As she took her last testing slurp, the bowl was finally set down and I found myself thanking God mentally. My brows knit together seamlessly as she tried to make small talk, and I had to join in eventually. "Fine, fine... Uh, I liked that you can make other people-" I glanced over at the awaiting half-Latina for her compliment before finishing with, "disappointed with you."

"I wonder why I'm not surprised," she breathed before momentarily glaring at me. The sudden urge to grab her face and smash my lips with hers gripped my body in a compulsive, wicked impulse.

I breathed deeply before snapping almost wearily, "Now do me." For a moment, she hesitated and I hoped that she didn't notice my slight change in temperament. If any doubts came to mind, she obviously ignored them or went along with them, depending on what 'them' exactly meant, and her tongue with the other parts of her mouth started to work slightly slurred.

"Let see, uh...," Vega's tongue clicked seamlessly, forcing me to clench my teeth through another wave of impulsive thinking, "you have nice hair."

"I do try," my voice trailed from a quiet confession, as if it really was a surprise. She just shrugged and we began once again. After a few more rounds, Vega insulted my 'dark, bitter soul' of mine and I reached deep into my subconscious, fishing for anything good. "I guess, from _certain angles_ , your pretty..." the admitted thought came out. _And all the other angles make you hot,_ my thoughts rampaged against my skull. Just to strip myself away from my raw self, I snapped quietly, "You can tell me I'm pretty."

"...You are pretty," she mumbled with a shrug. Our eyes shifted and locked into each other's grasp only for a moment. And that moment would be the one I would always look back to. Unlike the assessments I had made before about her eyes, I found they were more like a dark rust brown than just plain, doe eyes. The pupils were dilated even with the bright light around us, and I watched as her eyes flickered just below my neck and my own eyes.

We both turned our gaze towards the next bite and it was soon gone like the conversation. My ears perked at the sudden taps until I realized they were from my own foot against the metal railing on the bar. As the two of us ate, we were pestered by two ignorant boys who, just so, earned a special song; 'Take a Hint' which just so happened to be the one melting into the noises of the café.

Several times I had tried to stop the actions my body was portraying, like the increased amount of sway in my hips, thickness of my voice and the looks. Oh my God the damn looks I gave. And they were all targeted automatically towards Vega of all people.

Once the song was over, my mind was left buzzing and the need to move my body around was extinguished. As the boys left and we sat back down, Vega quietly asked, "Jade, do you- I don't know... but do- what instrument can you play?"

"What?" I husked, closing my eyes with the frown at my voice change.

"Well, everyone has to play an instrument and I never, erm, asked you..."

"I can play a few," I answered quietly.

"Really? And well?"

"Yeah, the piano a bit, cello, and the alto saxophone. My real pride and joy is my baritone sax though... I haven't actually played it in a little while," I murmured thoughtfully, suddenly wishing that I could be playing it at that moment.

"Huh, never would have pinned you as a saxophone player... Do you do jazz?"

"Sometimes, when I want to play instead of write. Though, whenever I do I always remember why I normally prefer writing. I love the bari but, it's _really_ heavy." I smirked before adding, "I mean, who wouldn't want to play with an arm that's asleep." My chest and in between my shoulders felt a flash of heat that wouldn't go away once I heard her chuckle a bit. No one really enjoyed my sense of humor, not the grim or 'ganky' one, but the other more sarcastic side. It wasn't that I kept it hidden, but nobody really liked it.

"Yeah, I'm sure Jade," she shook her head as another song popped on.

-o0o-

My body jerks slightly as a sudden loud song blasted through the speakers, driving me away from my thinking. Feeling no need to rush, even though I should, I dive back into my subconscious. I remember just wanting to blame the feelings on my period, but as the moths went on I couldn't do that; I began to look at her when I was nowhere near that time of the month.

So many chances, so many... I had so many chances to make a move and find out if Vega really did feel the same way, but I scrambled my wits just before I could. My hand grasped the side of the doorframe as she answered it, muttering a worried, "Hey."

All I could have done at that point was croak out, "I, I ne- I want you... to help me get Beck back." That wasn't my intention at _all_ , but that was what had came out. My mind was confused from the lack of emotion behind my cries for Beck, all while my heart began to blanket with sorrow.

My head shakes slightly as I drained the last of my drink, now, after a few years from Hollywood Arts, I rarely talked to her on the phone. In fact, we completely dropped all conversations a year or two ago... But with my busy schedule, I couldn't do anything about it.

Nothing but run to Beck who ended up exploding with sudden emotions, drink at hand. I didn't know what to do, so I just packed my things and moved to my own house.

"Miss West?" a mellow rasp bothered next to me. My head turns slightly and I recognize it as my assistant's voice, Mr. Wither. He was fairly older than I was, somewhere in his forties or fifties. His raven hair was kept longer than most men's hair with grey lining the widow's peak and his clean cut beard. Mr. Wither always wore a tie with some sort of dress clothing; today was a blue tie with a grey suit.

"Hello Mr. Wither, what do you need?" I mutter as he continued to stand beside me, "You can sit down you know..."

"Ah, thank you Miss West." Once he sat down, the man started, "I may have some news that you won't like."

"May have?" I asked coolly.

He chuckled a bit, very familiar with my tones, before he nods, "Well, I do."

"And? What is it?" I mutter, my mind slowly catching up with the piling plans ahead.

"The, uh, bank wants to meet with you to confirm that you revoked all of the money and transferred into another bank personally."

"And when would that be?"

My eyes narrow slightly as the family man's face pulled itself into a grimace, "Today at 12:45."

" _Shit_ ," I cursed as my eyes glided over the watch on my right wrist, "That's in an hour! Do I have to meet at the main office nearby?"

"Yes, at the Derby Bank..."

"And when were you going to tell me this?" I asked, my foot tapping roughly against the tile floor.

"Right now, I just found out five minutes ago... Miss West," he stammered before asking, "What about the auditions for 'The Street Moon'?"

"God I'll have to miss them... _fuck_."

"Do you not want to change the date?"

"No," I mumble wearily as I ran my left hand through my hair as I lean back, "We're on a deadline and I want to have this movie filmed by the end of December which is in six and a half months so... That, and we already have had changes and it wouldn't be fair to the people waiting for the auditions that will start in, oh I don't know, in an _hour_."

"Wise choice," Mr. Wither nods, "So... what should we do, these are the main characters today."

"Well, I guess you should go downtown and review the casting choices... You know what I expect from the characters so, it would be fine I suppose..."

"I suppose," he mimicked as his hand ran over his beard, "The only character I can't really get a handle on is Liza, and that's the protagonist. What do you want her to be like?"

"Uh," I scratched my head. "To be frankly honest, I haven't painted a clear picture myself. This should be interesting. Just find someone who can play kind and generous but eposes a lot of mystery of the character, like grim history of whatever."

"So, like is a sweet doll but has a bit of a, how to put it, a questioning side? If that makes sense."

"Yeah, something like that," I muttered, "God this movie, simplistic plot yet the most work for the damn thing- and we haven't even _started_ production yet."

Mr. Wither chuckles a bit before he said quietly, "Yeah, this one will be interesting for sure... So is the dinner still going to be held tomorrow?"

"Yeah, that way all the people working for this thing can meet."

"So see you then?"

"See you then," I acknowledged grimly as we both stood up, walked out and turned opposite directions to our individual vehicles. Once my black Bronco hummed, I pulled out and drove onto the highway, cursing no stop under my breath. "I fucking swear these assholes don't know how to drive..." my growls pierced through the radio.

-o0o-

A bell rang obnoxiously above the greeting door as I strode inside the bank, thoroughly pissed. My glare glazes over all of the waiting people in their respective seats. My eyes narrow at the lines for the money business then back over to the seats. "Why do they- oh shit, like I care," I whisper to myself anxiously. My steps trail around until I find a man standing, looking over the small lot of people.

"Excuse me sir, but are you the manager of the bank?"

"Yes," he answered, his eyes looking up and down at me, "Ah, you must be Miss West. Daughter of Alexander-"

"Yeah. That's me..." I mutter darkly, "Listen, so why exactly am I here?"

"I'll explain inside my office," he turned his heel and stalked off, me following annoyed. As we pass through some of the white halls, I grumble bit to myself sourly before we finally managed to get to his office. "So, we have had a problem with communications and our advisors are lost really."

"That's unfortunate," I said coolly, luckily he hadn't caught my snide remark. I'm fed up with this bank honestly; they're so unorganized that it is at a worrying fault. A bank should be organized to the point they should know exactly how your money is doing, not some educated guesses.

"Yes, so we have been holding meetings for bigger people to confirm things such as transfer." His hands move with his words, and I glance quickly at his name plate, reading Jackson R. Michael.

"Well Mr. Michael, this has been called at a very bad time. See, I had held important auditions for a project of mine and I can't change the time because of the inconvenient for the client. Now that would be very unprofessional now wouldn't it?"

"Yes it would," he mutters with a frown threatening, "Who what are you implying here?"

"That you do the opposite. I may be newer to the business scene and not know how a bigger company such as this one works. But as a _client_ , it is very frustrating to deal business with you which is why I moved my money over before this project initially started. And that was in January Mr. Michael. It's June 11th today. Do the math," I spat, not attempting to hide any of my stressed annoyance.

"I see... And what do you expect me to do Miss Jade West?"

"Oh," I growled, my calm mask slowly cracking. My eyes flicker across the room, picking out pieces like the cross on the wall, the painting of a tiger butchering a pig and the clock. "As a manager, you should know the stresses that come from deadlines. You pray to baby Jesus don't you that you can make it through, but in the mean time you cut corners which cuts the amount of time that your client has. You know why sharks aren't territorial yet lions are?"

"And why is that?" he asked sourly.

"Because sharks don't need to be. They piss and shit in water, their food swims in their mouth while lions have to search and scavenge for those same necessities. People are only territorial in this world of stone, metal and men because of _time_ , that is what we need sir. And you stripping it away for your benefit will only raise red flags for the clients who, by the way, are the main source of your income."

I smirk as my eye glare at the sheepish man in front of me. "Food for thought," I mutter as I stride towards the door, "like you need more food..." My smirk grows into a wicked grin as I see his reflection pat his pot belly pathetically. I felt powerful marching down the halls, and I'm pleased when everyone doesn't even attempt to take the chance of brushing past me. once back in the car, I sigh and answer my phone which rang profusely as I crossed the street.

Looking at the name first, I press it against my ear and answer, "Mr. Wither? Need something."

"Nope, just saying that we got all of the cast done!"

"Awesome!" I laugh, "So who's playing the four main roles?"

"Ah, lets see... I don't have the papers with me but, okay. So the best friend of Liza is played by Charles Danvier. The controlled assassin is played by Ryder Daniels-

"Oh. My. God. I know him."

"Really?"

"Yep," I admit sourly, "Real idiot."

"Yeah, he did seem a little off. But he did fairly well for the auditions so... yeah."

"Anyway, what about the other two?"

"Ah, yes. The 'puppeteer' is played by Sarah Racheal and Liza... oh no. I can't remember her name! Well, you'll meet her tomorrow." I hear him sigh on the other end and bite my lip.

"It's alright Mr. Wither, just how easy are they to work with?"

"Well Daniels will be a bit of a pain, I can see it now."

"Yeah, how 'bout the other three," I mutter as I shake my head slightly.

"Right. Danvier seems to be a good boy, young and I think this is his first movie. All of them actually- no, Racheal has been in another one. She seems to be fine to work with, though I'll ask the prior director of her past movie. And the other girl, oh man she is just so sweet. Seems to have a fiery side too but, my God I've never seen a person so kind and polite in Hollywood. I wonder how she'll do in years to come, I hope she stays true to it. It's like she's too nice for Hollywood honestly."

"Okay now, settle down Mr. Wither. You're married." I smirk as I hear a hardy laugh on the other side.

"Oh it's nothing like that. I'm afraid that my days of ladies are over- don't tell my wife that... But I'll tell you I would be interested if I was half my age. Very pretty, very pretty."

"Alright, I'll just go home then and meet you tomorrow at the dinner."

"Yes, I'll go home too. My wife will get all the love she deserves..."

"Yes you do that," I chuckle, "Bye Mr. Wither."

"Good day Miss West." Once the phone was placed in my cup holder, I drove straight home, cursing randomly at the drivers around. Summer, I'll tell you- it brings many horrible drivers.

-o0o-

My front door closes loudly behind me. Steps pad their way down to the basement and through two large maple doors. "Still sleeping cat?" I murmur as my fingers glide over my tom's fur. He purrs himself away and stands up, stretches, before hopping down and brushing against my leg.

I wouldn't have dreamed of owning a cat; ever. But after I moved into this small manor, I found him on the streets and decided to take him in as company. "There we go Salem," I mutter, "Now I'm going to take a shower so you just go back on the bed." Salem, a rather big black cat, was almost skin and bone when I first found him. I watch as the lanky feline hops back on the bed obediently and curls up into a black ball.

Such a weird cat. I've never had a cat that actually knew his own reflection and understood what 'tuna' and 'ham' was. Ham of all things. He understands what I tell him and rarely makes a noise; except when he wants food. God every morning at 6:30 sharp, he slaps me awake and I will then proceed to kick him off the bed. Five minutes later Salem will sit on my chest and just stare at me until I get up and feet him while I brew some coffee.

Before I make my way into the bathroom, dark orange eyes blink sleepily at me before drowning in black. I shake my head a bit as I walk through the door, turn on the faucet and wait as the water warms up. I'll tell you this now, that shower was nice.

That is, until my weird cat decided to jump in with me. "Salem... Stop being creepy," I mutter as he stared at me, short fur dampening as the water soaked through. "I thought cats hated water." My eyes close and I shake my head before I carry on with my cleaning procedure.

I swear I think I just saw him shrug in response to me.


	2. Chapter 2

My hand reaches out and pulls my towel away from the bars on the wall. Once the cloth is around my body, I step over and onto the bathroom floor, my steps padding over to the master bedroom. I raise a questioning eyebrow at Salem, who was slightly wet. "Did you just dry yourself on my bed?" I hiss, gazing at the damp sheets beneath him.

Like any pet owner, you imagine their responses and voice based on the looks they give you. So, in a light mellow voice, I picture him shrugging, _No._

"That's called being a fucking asshole cat."

_So, I'm a cat... It doesn't matter that all of the tabbies are bitches, I have to do my part._

"And what's that?"

_Be a pain in your ass while I am also independent at the same time._

I rolled by eyes, realizing that this would end up with a car starting very late. Staring at the clock above my bed, ticking away hypnotically, I nod knowing that I had about one hour before the dinner. My arms automatically pull out black undergarments, because I don't have any others, and then I pace around the room, staring at my cat again. "Should I wear a dress?"

He only blinks and seems to murmur, _eh, I would go with... That dress thing you wore at the last thing you went to._

"Really?" I mutter as I pulled out nice dress pants and jacket. Deciding against it, to Salem's 'displeasure' (he just started to take a nap on the wet spot on my bed), I take out a long black dress that had one sleeve. "This good?" O hold up before just shrugging my shoulders and shoving it on. I gaze at the vanity mirror and once deciding that it would suit that night, I began to do my makeup.

After thirty minutes of that, I end up wearing flats and walk up the stairs and slipped in my car, headed straight for the dinner with minutes to spare. My eyes flicker over the dashboard as it lit to life and I smirk; 8:14, I planned to leave originally at 8:30.

-o0o-

The brisk, chilled night puts a spring in my step as I become more alert in the starry night sky. The restaurant, the Compass, is just above me several stories high. I stride into the building and wait for my assistant to arrive, taking a water from a vending machine while at it. Mid-sip, I hear a cheerful, mellow voice behind me, "Ah, Miss West. You're here, great. So, shall we make our way up to the Compass?"

"Sure," I mutter, walking over to the elevators with Mr. Wither.

"You look nice tonight," he compliments as one opens/

"Thank you Mr. Withers, so do you," I nod, acknowledging the black, buttoned up suit with a green tie. "New tie?"

"Oh, yes. My son got me this, and another one but the dog got to that one first..."

"Oh," I chuckle slightly, "Did he chew it up?"

"What? No," Mr. Wither smiled, pulling out his phone, "My son put the tie on her and now she won't let anyone else wear it." I smirk at the picture of a grey pit-bull with an intricate red and orange tie around its neck.

"Nice tie," I murmur as the elevator began to climb up the building. I lean on the handle bars as the city around me shows itself behind a glass wall, colors and shapes dazzling my eyes. For a moment, it was quiet as we both looked across the landscape before there was a wall and the doors opened once again. As we step out, a waiter turns his head and grins.

"Reservations?" he asks in a low voice.

"Yes, West," I answer politely.

"Ah, follow me," and then his heels turn and click away, Mr. Wither and I right behind him. We end up with this big room with many seats placed around many small tables with huge windows overlooking a balcony, which stood in front of the other side of the city skyline. Cars raced down the streets and windows of buildings blinked.

"The bar should be open in a half hour, the bartender is running a little late tonight, although just outside the doors over to the right," the waiter gestures over to the opposite side of the room, "will lead you straight to the bathrooms and a vending machine."

"Huh, that's smart. Right next to the bar," I mutter under my breath, Mr. Wither nods in agreement.

"The buffet should be set up within twenty or so minutes and if you have any questions there will be people helping to set up for tonight." With that, the man left towards the doors he guided us through.

"So, Miss West, are we still going to look over the script?"

"Yeah, did you bring them?"

"And copies, they're in this here briefcase," his hand pats the black box in his grip.

"How the hell did I not notice that before?" I ask, bewildered. All he does is shrug while I excuse myself outside. Once the chilled air hit my skin, I smirk gently as I leaned onto the railing, wondering how much it would hurt if I just jumped then and there. 'Course, I wouldn't do that. The movie hasn't even stressed me out that much yet.

I thumb over my other fingers as I stare out, recalling the story that I had came up with several months before.

Basically, Liza is a smart girl, a really smart girl, who graduated college with a journalism degree and set out to write for a newspaper. With her job not taking off as she wanted to, Liza had other jobs like waitressing, bartending, and retailing. One day, when her best friend, Marcus, is in town, they both find a young women unconscious by Liza's doorstep.

They end up taking her in and Liza becomes intrigued by this woman who introduces herself as Gretel Anne, and vise versa. While Gretel has Liza wrapped around her finger, starting to sleep with her, she begins to search for pages of books. All of this happen as retired politicians and historians around the area are killed. After every one of them, the 'puppeteer' takes another young woman before the next crime.

Liza, becoming suspicious with her new friend, goes off and confines with Marcus who decides to search around Liza's house. They both end up finding many papers hidden around, and connected the dots; Gretel was the puppeteer and she made girls work to search through the historians' and politicians' homes as the assassin did his work. The killings were only necessary to cover up the real crime.

Once the girls did their job, they were never seen again. So weeks pass and Liza has her house bugged with no luck, Gretel didn't admit to anything. She soon becomes paranoid that she is the next chosen girl and, one day, Gretel confirms that theory. Liza was taken to a hotel were they basically had sex and, because her clothes were off and the microphone which was hidden so well in them wouldn't be able to pick up anything, Liza became worried.

Her task was to go through one of her neighbor's house, a retired newsperson, and steal a black leather book of apparent 'great importance'. So she does it, and sent the police to jump Gretel and the assassin while they waited outside. However, the plan fails and she walks out, finding bodies of policemen and women everywhere. There were eleven gunned down officers and she felt that it was her fault.

Another week later, she too disappears, and is sent to a basement where she is tortured until one day, Liza finds she has no feelings what so ever. There is something else as well; all of the missing girls are alike her, sent away emotionless to Egypt, working on a project. They become soldiers, obeying nobody else but the puppeteer. Instead of acting on her orders like she should, Liza escapes and goes completely off the grid.

After five total months since she had been missing, Liza meets with Marcus and tells him about her plans; which is to destroy the puppeteer and her plans. And so they find out when the next attack would be and planted a bomb underneath the car that Gretel would wait. However, Marcus screws up and allows Gretel to see him, and she leaves the car and walks away just before the car blew up. Because of this, Liza snaps, shooting her childhood best friend fatally, not even a crack of remorse is shown on her face.

All throughout that night Liza tracks down Gretel and is jumped by the assassin, only to shoot him as well. The puppeteer is backed into a corner where she died on the spot without any hesitation. That night, Liza found a way to feel something other than the nothing she felt, and began to go on a rampage, eventually caught by the police who ended up accidentally shooting her to death. The title comes from that last scene, shown in the end as the camera pans to where Liza was shot down, which was the street 'Moon'.

It's a longer movie and goes all over the place, though I hoped hat it would see some profit, whether one person loved it or hundreds. My ears perk at the sound of people and my head turns around, finding about fifty to seventy people in the room behind me. Brushing off my dress, I make my way inside and start shaking hands with other people who would help in the movie, actors or not.

Eventually, I begin to walk over to the bar when I see something out of the corner of my eye. I blink for a few seconds, almost dazed, before she looked back at me. Mr. Wither was talking to her and he beams, gesturing me over. "Uh, Vega?" I blurt out as I stand beside the two.

"Hey Jade," she mutters before giving a small smile.

"Oh, so you two know each other?" my assistant looks between both of us.

"We were frien-"

"No we weren't," I snap.

"Okay... we were friends-ish." Mr. Wither raises his eyebrow at me from my sudden outburst. Old habits seem to never die.

A sudden flash of rage hits me and my blood starts to boil, "Why haven't you called me for the past year?"

"Oh, Jade... I can actually explain that."

"Really? How?" I spat, sourly as I began to loose myself.

"Jade-" she began as Mr. Wither opened his mouth.

"Miss West, really? What has gotten into you?"

"It's fine Mr. Wither, really. This isn't new."

"What do you mean?"

"Within the years we were in the same group, I've had coffee spilt on me, a pint of blood 'missing'- _yes I knew that was you Jade, don't act fucking surprised_ \- and then... yeah."

"What the..." he looks at me surprised.

"I never said I was an angel," I mutter, glaring at Vega who, even in the mist of my anger, I felt the need to lock her in a closet and give her a very personal welcome. Even though normally I hated when people stood up to me, the fire in her eyes turned me on like it had before. Mr. Wither just shrugs slightly before Vega shook her head.

"How about you excuse us," she almost snaps, more at me than anything else, and snatches my hand, taking me off through some doors. We pass the restrooms and, wouldn't you know it, I find myself in a janitor's closet with Vega.

"Why are we in here together? It's not high-school."

"Well hello to you too Jade," she rolls her eyes.

"Now explain why you haven't been calling me like you said?" I growl, ignoring her last snide remark.

"I got into a car accident and my phone was destroyed in the process. I tried getting your number but all I could get was Andre's and Cat's. That good enough for you?" she spits back, leaving me sheepish.

"Yeah, that's a pretty good excuse," I mumble quietly.

"So..." Vega starts, my gaze flickering up. Her arms are stretched out and she wears this stupid grin on her face, "Hello hug?"

"God Vega," I hiss as I pull her into a hug. Her arms clasp around my back and I squeeze her hard as she does.

"Um, Jade? That's good-"

"Shut the fuck up Vega. It's been a year since we last spoke to each other, and a few since we last saw each other, so no it isn't," I mutter bitterly. Her grip seems to grow tighter after that.

"I missed you too Jade," she whispers and we stay like that for a couple of minutes before pulling away in order for her to get my phone number, and me hers since I deleted it by mistake as I filtered through my phone one rare drunk weekend.

-o0o-

"So do you live close by?" Vega asks as we sit by the bar at a table, margaritas at hand.

"Yeah, well... About forty minutes away."

"Really? I would've thought you moved away from Los Angeles," she murmurs quietly as another sip is taken.

"Yeah," I nod, "But I found a really nice property on a nice, quiet neighborhood so I didn't feel like it. I did consider moving to Oregon, but now I'm thinking about a summer house there."

"That would be nice," the half-Latina nods quietly. After a few seconds, she mutters, "I heard about Beck from Andre, I'm sorry."

"Me too," I say somewhat truthfully, "We had a good relationship at Hollywood Arts for what it was but, after he proposed, he started drinking. A lot."

"Really? I would have never thought..."

"I know... I wouldn't have either, and I didn't. But he accused me of cheating on him and that there was 'someone else' in the picture. Like I would really fuck my assistant who, by the way, is twice the nearly twice the age as me, has a loving wife and three kids... Well, three kids a decade or two ago."

"Mr. Wither?" she asks before commenting once I nodded, "He's a nice man, and funny too."

"Yeah, he's been with me since my second project, and I pay him well since I found out that his wife can't work."

"How come."

"Some metal disorder, I forget what it is though," I mumble as I felt Vega's gaze on me.

"Aww, so you do have a soul."

"Nobody ever said I didn't, they just said it was dark and twisted."

"And bitter," she laughs, even when I gave her a half hearted glare. "Well, I'll go meet with the other people. So I'll talk to you later?"

"Yeah, sure," I wave her off, smiling slightly as she paced off with a spring in her step.

-o0o-

My hand shook what felt like the fiftieth person that night (she probably was to be frankly honest) and my gaze slid over to Vega once again. It hardens once I see her with one of the other actors, Charles, at one of the tables. My steps decide to march over and Vega smiles as I stand right beside the table.

The young man stands up and shakes my hand, "Hello, you must be Miss West. I'm Charles, and I play Marcus in the movie."

"Good to know your part," I nod. He seemed like a nice person, but he was way too close to Vega so that immediately put him on my 'maybe' list. Most on the 'maybe' list ends up on the wrong side of the line. Vega was one of those few, if not the only one, that was one side and jumped onto the other.

"Yeah, I look forward to play my role. It's my first movie so I'm kind of nervous..."

"Don't be," I start, putting a small grin on Vega's face before adding, "Unless the movie flops."

" _Jade_ ," she snaps, "If the movie flops it'll be a blow to you too."

"Yeah, and?"

"You're the damn script writer and director, you of all people don't want this to fail."

"Uh, huh. Got that right Vega, but it's good to be realistic."

"Right, and it's also good to apparently shoot someone's hopes down as well." Before I can retort and Vega add on to the remark, both of us turn our heads to the entertained chuckles beside us.

"What's so funny, Danvier?" I snap, slowing down the small laughs.

"Nothing, it's just you two. Did you go to school together?"

"Yeah," we both answer in unison. For a moment, his eyes flicker between us and he gave a small smile.

"I have to meet the rest, see you two later," Danvier waves as he strode off. Both of us then proceed to jump into another conversation which was actually quite nice. After about thirty minutes, I excuse myself once I see Mr. Wither nod towards me.

"What is it?" I mutter once I reach him.

"How can you attack her then on a flip of a dime have proper long conversations with her?" he questions, intrigued.

"Why do you ask?"

"Well... It's always nice to know the chemistry among the projects," he simply put. "So?"

Sometimes there are moments when you just do something that would make a huge difference and you only had one second to confirm it before acting. In the spur of the moment, that had happened. "I-you know when I got really drunk that one night and we talked?"

"If you mean that night when we were shooting the club scene in you last movie?"

"Yeah, that one... You remember when I said that I spit with my ex and he said there was someone else?"

"And there wasn't except one that you met..." his brows furrow and his gaze turns over to Tori for a moment. "And felt a stronger bond than with him," he finished in a soft breath. I allow him to catch up and, after a few moments, Mr. Wither mumbles, "That's the one?"

"Yeah," I answer quietly.

"That's interesting... How does that work? I mean, the back stabbing then normal talking?"

"I don't know and it's still confusing... And now I have to work on almost every scene with her for the next year or so on the project as a whole."

"Well, that is interesting... You're a very diverse character, you know that Miss West?"

"People normally say 'you're a difficult person'."

He chuckles a bit before replying with, "Maybe, but it's really how they read and miss the hints."

"Thanks Mr. Wither, now I'm going to go to the bar and get some whisky."

"No you're not."

"Why?" I almost whined.

"Uh, because you drove here."

"Dammit," I curse under my breath. I really wanted that whisky, I heard people say it was a good brand.


	3. Chapter 3

The sound of keys hit the kitchen counter as I step down the stairs and into my room. Once the door opens, I can hear Salem purr awake before falling asleep again. As my dress is pulled off, I don't really feel like slipping into anything so I climb under the sheets in my underwear and bra. A few minutes later, the bra was thrown across the room as I became annoyed from the wires digging into me. "Stupid bra," I murmur as I scratched one of my prized possessions of my body and closed my eyes in a frown.

They open as I felt a pair of eyes stare at me hungrily. My eyelids open only for a second and all I see is Salem's face with eyes blinking, looking as if they're floating. "AHHHH! SALEM, HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I TOLD YOU _NOT_ TO DO THAT?" I bellow, almost falling out of bed. His nose twitches slightly, but other than that he just looks back at me, looking slightly entertained. While I glare at him, my hands grip him under his arms, hoisting the cat up so I can glare at him more.

For a moment, that's all there is, until I felt a scratchy tongue licking my left thumb while he noisily purrs. From what I could see in the dark lighting of the room, some daylight casting from the doors, I assume its something like eight or nine. I set Salem down in between my legs and he stares at my boobs, tongue out.

"No Salem," I mutter as he tries to crawl towards them. I've learned that whenever I don't wear anything on my upper body, he likes to praise my breasts, licking them until his heart's purpose is filled. It just feels weird; on several occasions I've woke wide awake feeling a scratchy tongue run over the skin. Two words. Strange. Cat."

"Salem, if you quit being the creepy stud that you are, I'll get you food." His eyes widen and stare into my soul while ears perk excitedly. Salem lets out a loud 'meow' before flying off the bed and rubbing his against the door frame. "Hold on cat," I snap before pulling a black robe over my shoulders and tying it loosely. The black cat leads the way as I step quietly up the stairs and into the kitchen where I enjoy a coffee and Salem some dry food.

Once my first cup of coffee was drained, I pour another and set myself on the couch to watch some TV. First I flicker through multiple channels before halting on one which ended up being almost over. Sighing disappointedly, I go back to the guide and search for another channel. "No, no, fuck no, why? No, no, no...ye- _no_ , no. Huh, Salem?" I turn over to the cat who just hopped onto the couch and curled beside me. His orange eyes look up at me expectantly, waiting for the question. "You think that I should watch this?" my hand gestures to the TV on the documentary on strip clubs.

Salem watches the screen lazily before licking my thigh and then a few seconds later, he's on my lap, playing with one of the strings. I shrug and watch the documentary, watching the half naked women pleased. "Wait, why is this on right now? It's a Saturday and almost 9:45... Oh well, not complaining," I smirk as one of the strippers teased.

As ten rolled by, I found myself learning nothing like all the other lesbians or guys also watching the channel. Deciding that I should probably take a shower, I stand abruptly, forgetting that Salem was on my lap sound asleep. He lets out a low hiss before walking away with his tail up high, almost like flipping me off. I suppose that's the only way cats can do that; they don't really have middle fingers to hold up.

Shaking my head slightly, I watch as Salem disappears down the opposite hall before striding back downstairs. About half an hour later, the feeling of warm water and soap satisfies me and I pull on my robe once again, this time tying it a bit tighter. I run my hands through my wet hair, which is still black and with green highlights, as I rummage through drawers for clothes. Once black underwear and a bra was put on, I went back upstairs, not feeling the need to go out in the outside world. I wouldn't have to; the first day of filming is on Monday. Back in front of the TV, I decide to switch on my Xbox and play some Halo, grinning as I shot multiple aliens in the heads.

"Shit, look at the time," I mutter to myself after my stomach growled angrily at me. The Xbox menu read 3:33, and I immediately turned it off. Back in the kitchen I gaze through the fridge, realizing I had eaten the last of the leftovers. On top of that, there wasn't any food other than items like brownie mix and spices.

My ears pick up the sound of vibrations on the counter and my eyes snap back to my phone. The screen read an unknown caller, so I answered hesitantly. "Hello?"

I grumble as I heard a drunken chuckle and slurred speech, "Hey Jade... Why don't you move back here, it's been a little while I think, I miss you..."

"Beck, why are you calling me? No, I'm not moving back with you ever and I'm not going to be back with you ever."

"Why not?" he growls angrily.

" _That's_ why," I snap before adding, "And I blocked your number, where are you?"

"The house has a wall phone, remember bitch?"

I bite the inside of my gums a bit before hissing, "How about you don't call me when you're drunk, got that?"

"Where do you live?"

"I'm not telling you."

"Why not?" he barks.

"Because you're a fucking ass whenever you're drunk and that's what you are right now."

"No..."

" _Yes-you-are_ ," I growl through my teeth. "If you want to still be friends then clean up your damn act."

"We can still be friends?" I hear Beck ask quietly. I feel my glare soften slightly; while I won't ever get back with him, I also lost my best friend to the beers and I still do need that side of him. The question had a hint of that, which meant he wasn't completely gone, yet.

"Yes, I told you that as I left. But I remember you trashed one of my lamps instead."

"Because I don't want to be friends I want you in bed _now_ ," the Canadian harshly snaps, his voice coming across in between a whine and an order.

"Don't call me again," I whisper before hanging up the call and identifying the number as 'Beck'. Deciding against blocking this one, since if he ever does change, he kind of needed to stay in contact with me if we wanted to still be friends. My right hand brushes against my left forearm, sending chills down my spine as I recalled the several bruises I had when he had me in his grasp. The same one that used to be loving and careful, but now was threatening and hungry.

I sigh, not knowing why he changed so suddenly. My suspicions lead me to believe that it started off when he thought that I was cheating on my then-new assistant before I introduced Mr. Wither to Beck. After that, he found me multiple times masturbating to naked women because who the hell wouldn't and got fired up because I was alone instead with him. Jealousy started this initially, and I did try to help him with it, I really did because I understood how it worked. But instead of turning to someone who understood, he went straight to the bar.

From my experiences with drinks, I know that it isn't the liquors' fault, it's the mouth and mind that consumes it. The drink brings out some parts of people, the parts that are vulnerable at that time. Back last year, from the summer until I left in late November, Beck fell deep into a bark place, one that I couldn't get him out of. He often cursed at me and accused me of cheating, thinking of other people and would shove me into the bedroom with a tight grip.

Out of the things he spat at me, I was guilty of only one of them. At first, not really, but as time went on I couldn't help myself. Tori Vega had always plagued my mind, ever since that 'date' together. When I felt myself not being able to get off during the times in the bedroom, I had to keep my mind on her; otherwise I would get slapped if I didn't because the only time it ended was when we both climaxed.

So, with everything bottled up, I tried to leave unnoticed one day with the few belongings that were 100% mine in November, but he ended up catching me. That was the worst fight I ever had with _anyone_. He yelled at me until his voice went hoarse, and I screamed at him as I shoved a box of books in the car. Beck tried to hit me but, once again I held on to the feelings of the past year, so I let him have it. While he may be the one that goes to the gym every single day, we both knew I was stronger because of my agility and reflexes; other than that, not so much. I quickly ducked and punched him hard in the stomach, knocking him to the ground.

"I'm leaving and I've tried to help Beck. If we can be friends fine, but I'm not crawling back to you. Not this time," I hiss before my car started, and I saw him dart inside and smash a lamp that stood in front of the window. Tears prickled my eyes as I sat on the curb of my house. It's a nice manor, smaller than the one I lived in my childhood, but it would do. It's fairly isolated other than the front, and I like it that way. It makes me feel safe.

It was dark out I remember, and my gaze had just snapped off the grey house to the staring eyes off in the distance. Our gaze locked and he padded quietly up to me, sniffing my car which was parked at the edge of the driveway. My head cocked to the side as the black cat sniffed my shoe and looked up at me. "Umm, hello there?" I muttered before patting his head. I smile gently before looking around, "You lost little buddy."

I only received a stare back before he brushed up against my right calf. "Okay..." I started before standing up and walking inside the house. Looking around, I went to the doors to the left which lead to the library which is where I slept for the first few nights. Remembering that I accidentally left the front door open, I slammed it shut before slipping into the mattress and sheets I had bought that day. My eyes shut close before I felt something crawl at the edge of the bed and started to knead at my feet.

"That fuck are you doing cat?" I hissed at him, watching as the black tom continued to stare at me with lazy eyes before curling up in a tight ball. For days I just called him 'cat', 'fucking cat', 'damn cat' before naming him Salem as I watched an old favorite show of mine, 'Sabrina the Teenage Witch'. The name suits him.

I look around and realize that I am standing in my bedroom with jeans and an unbuttoned flannel draping on my shoulders. I smile slightly as Salem strides in the room, obviously forgiving me for standing up to take a shower.

-o0o-

"Miss West?"

"Yes?" I ask as my slight glare switches over to Mr. Wither. It was a relatively early morning that Monday, around nine, and already I've had fifty 'Miss West's within five minutes.

"Okay, so we're shooting about three scenes a day, right?"

"'Till we get done by December, why?"

"Oh, one of the lighting crew members asked," he grins gently.

"God, was it that one blonde again? I swear I just told him that ten minutes ago!" I snap anxiously.

"You nervous?"

"Uh... yeah," I murmur.

"Don't worry, it'll be fine," he assures before disappearing in the small crowd. Today, for some reason, I am all over the place. Maybe because this is a longer movie than the others or that I have-

"Jade?" Then ginger question sends my hot coffee all over my shirt as my arm jerked suddenly. I whip around and glare at Vega who can only gawk at me before snatching some paper towels from the food table that sat innocently right next to us. "Oh shit. I'm sorry Jade, I didn't mean to scare you..." she mutters as she attempts to dry me off by rubbing to paper towels all over the new stains on my shirt.

"Do you do this to everyone?" I smirk slightly before grabbing more paper towels to help.

She chuckles as the damp paper is thrown away, "No... Just the people who I accidentally spill coffee on." I turn my head to the side as I looked at her outfit for the scene. Plain grey sweater with white buttoned up shirt underneath, jeans and black boots. "Hey, excuse me? Can we get another shirt for Miss West?" Vega asks a passing makeup artist who nods quickly and sets off for an extra shirt. As the half-Latina turns back to me, my eyes flicker back up and I feel a slight heat in my cheeks.

"Are you nervous?" she mutters, looking at me with those dark, rusted eyes.

"Yeah... Maybe a bit," I murmur as I felt her hand on my shoulder.

"Here's an extra flannel, Miss West. It was all I could find and it's an extra shirt so-"

"It's fine, thanks," I mutter, taking the bloodied grey shirt. "Uh, I'm going to go and..."

"You can go in my dressing room," Vega nods as I walk over to the room. Once the door labeled 'Dressing Room 4' closes, I pull off the damp white shirt before gazing around the room for a towel to dry my skin off. I see Vega's purse on the chair in the corner and folded clothes which I could only assume are hers on the couch next to the door.

My shoulders shrug as I dabbed myself with the dirtied shirt before pulling the grey one over my head. It smelled like fake blood but, whatever.

The dressing room door swings open as I step through, striding over to my bag which is sitting next to my chair. As the clothing is stuffed inside, I hear some chuckling behind me and turn over to see Mr. Wither, "What happened?"

"Vega."

"Oh really?" His tie is then straightened as he seats himself in his chair before adding, "Was Ryder at the gathering on Friday?"

"I don't think so..." I frown slightly.

"Well, he's harassing one of the actors Miss West... And I think you might want to get involved," he points over to the side. I shift my gaze and find Ryder, Vega and Charles together, obviously having a dispute. Slightly fumed, I stalk over listening to them.

"Ryder, just go away if we're in your space! Charles and I were here first," Vega snaps at the raven haired boy.

"People should get out of my way anytime," he scoffed before turning to Charles, "And you stop acting like you're her 'knight in shining armor' because she won't take you."

"What do you mean stop acting? We've only just met a few days ago at the auditions and you've never once seen me with her?" he mutters, stepping towards Ryder defensively.

"But I've seen the way you've looked at her," the other snaps viciously, "Besides. I'm just saying she won't take you, since she's a bitchy dyke after all." Charles looks livid before he is able to restrain himself as Vega looks at her feet.

"Look, I can't help myself. She's a pretty girl," he nods towards Vega who looks up at him and smiles gingerly. Charles opens his mouth to saw something else as I step in.

"It would be good if you shut your mouth Daniels and turned away," I growl, turning all three gazes towards me.

"And what are you going to do about it?" he spits.

"Well, as I'm the _director_ , I could easily fire you and make sure everybody knows your good boy act is just a- well... Act." He looks as if he wanted to say something, but decided against it as his steps turns to the other direction. My head shakes as I watched Daniels kick a wall before leaving.

"It'll be hard to find another actor though... I've seen his audition as I waited and he's pretty good Miss West," Charles mutters sourly. I turn to him and watch as he looks at Vega pitifully.

"We'll start in about ten, so you two go and eat or whatever," I mutter before leaving. As I sit in my chair, my eyes watch as they immerse themselves in a conversation, Charles nodding while Vega speaks. I feel a pang of jealousy shoot through my body, before I closed my eyes, knowing that there's nothing truly wrong.

_Except that the fuck boy is stealing her._

'Uh, he looks nothing like a fuck boy and he is treating her nicely anyway.'

_Still, she's yours._

'Have we kissed yet? No. Have we fucked yet? No. Have we dated yet-

_Yes._

'Called method acting ass, now stop being a dumb shit and turn around', I snap at myself, feeling as the war take a break from rattling my thoughts against my skull. If I were to be jealous of anyone, it should be... Actually, yeah, it would be Charles. He's nice, too nice to Tori to just want to be friends. God, I thought being an adult would get rid of all of these problems.

-o0o-

"Hey, Liza? What do you mean that... okay, right," Charles spoke into the phone somberly. I watched as we shot the scene when Liza needs a ride to her house and calls Marcus. "Yeah, I'll be there about twenty minutes, okay. See you then." He hangs up, shoving the phone in his pocket before turning around and putting the box of strawberries back in the fridge.

"I suppose I'll eat you guys later," he mumbles before walking over to the coffee table for his keys and then through the door.

"Alright... That's good," I shout softly, nodding at the camera men and women to stop recording. Charles looks pleased; it was the second scene shot that day, Vega's was the first, going around and getting ready for work, but this as his first one.

"You did well," I nod as he strode over.

"Thank you Miss West," he mutters as his steps lead over to Vega who smiles at him.

"So, we shoot at the café tomorrow?" Mr. Wither pulls me out of my glare.

"Yeah, I reserved the coffee shop. We'll have to be quick about it though, it's only a few scenes but I told them we'd be gone before the dinners start. They did offer us a free dinner so anyone who wants to eat is welcome."

"That sounds good, my wife is taking the kids to a dinner tomorrow so I should be free." I give him a small smile before going back to glaring at Vega whose hugging Charles. "Will we need a forklift to send him through the roof?" the man asks teasingly.

"...Please," I mutter, earning a hearty laugh before it drops suddenly.

"You're serious aren't you..."

"It doesn't have to be a forklift, it could be a crane," I mumble.

Mr. Wither heaves a heavy sigh before asking, "This is going to be a long week for you isn't it?"

"Tomorrow coffee shop, Wednesday here, Thursday... oh my God."

"What?" he stutters, looking slightly concerned as I stare at the planner I created for the scenes months ago.

"Thursday is the sex scene were Gretel tells Liza what to do..." A small smirk stretches across my face as I pictured Vega topless with 'Gretel'.

"Thursday will be fun then," he laughs softly,

"Yeah..." I murmur, diving into my thoughts.

_Why are you such a pervert?_

'Because it's fun...' I growl at my battling inner voices as I pictured Vega once again how I set up the scene.


	4. Chapter 4

Vega finishes washing down the last table and her head spins towards the door once Charles walks through. They make eye contact and she mutters, "Just a sec," before darting to the back. Charles stands by the front doors, swaying at his feet and waiting, until the half-Latina comes back with a coat on.

"Ready?" he asks before 'Liza' nods in turn, then leaving for the car running outside. After a few moments, the car disappeared around the corner before I was happy with the scene.

"Alright! I want food! Come on!" I yell, the recording stopping short after and the camera crew rolling their eyes. Once the coffee shop and looked as it had before, chairs down and the proper menus out, people were free to leave for the day however most stayed for the food.

"Hey, you staying Charles?" Vega asks as the young actor put on his coat.

"Nah, my grandma has some people over tonight and I promised her I would go.'

"That's too bad. Well have fun," she smiles, hugging him before he left. My gaze glares hot beams at the wall in front of me, which just so happens to have a window with Charles' car, now bursting into flames within my imagination. 'Course, it would do so once he got in, but whatever, same thing. My attention is then turned towards the restaurant owner and his young daughter.

"Thanks for letting her watch, she wants to be in the movie business some day so it was cool for her to see, right Clare," he asks his daughter who nods vigorously.

"Anytime," I mumble as they walk away, hand in hand. My eye register their bond, the simple hand holding, and I begin to think about the times when I did that with my father. No memories come up, and a small smile forms on my face as they began to skip away, matching the daughter's excitement. I may get jealous really easily, although I never do in the cases of children with their parents. My immediate reaction is always, _it wasn't them, it was me_ , and I become somewhat happy or pleased for them.

The sign in the window flips around, bidding anyone who wanted dinner to come in, and a waiter who had waited around guided the somewhat larger party up stairs. I gaze down the ledge over where I had just sat a minute prior, then to my name being called.

"Jade? Want to sit over here?" Vega asks from a few feet away at a table for two. I nod and my feet stride over, sitting down in front of Vega. "So, what are you going to get?"

"Something that will allow me to sleep tonight," I mumble, looking over all of the options; many including fish.

"Huh?"

"My cat, he'll try to lick the smell off me if I eat anything too strong. He's done it before too, but I didn't really think that he would try to get where all of the shrimp fell..."

"You have a cat?" her head cocks to the side, "Since when?"

"Since I moved into my house," I laugh softly, "Salem. He's such a weird cat, likes to sit and watch me in the shower but if I dare try to close the door so he won't, he'll open it."

"What?" Vega began to chuckle.

"Yeah, the handle's aren't little balls so he's long enough to open them... Salem's strange but he's a smart cat."

"What else does he do?" the half-Latina looks at me, putting her menu down.

"Lets see, goes through this long 'wakeup' process, stares at me creepily while he's kneading by my side, grooms me, and he also knows how to watch TV."

"How?"

"I don't know. The cat knows his own reflection and knows that the TV isn't just some box with a trapped person inside."

"Wow, my dog is as dumb as shit," she chuckles slightly. After I raise my pierced eyebrow at her, Vega continues, "I love my little Berry to pieces but she doesn't understand that you can't walk through glass."

"Berry?"

"I didn't name her, but she doesn't answer to anything else so..." she shrugs.

"Makes sense," I nod before asking, "So you know the plans for filming?"

"Yeah, I'm really nervous for Thursday though..."

"How come?" I frown slightly, momentarily forgetting what Thursday was.

"When the person ran into me in the car accident, my car flipped over and I had to get out. I didn't see part of the frame that was out and tried to crawl away before anything else happened. I did, but I got a bad scar on my shoulder," her brows furrow at the menu laying on the table.

'Which shoulder?"

"The right," Vega murmurs, "And it still shows through a pound of makeup so I don't know how I feel about the scene. That and I've never been half naked in _front of a camera_. Mind telling me why that popped in your mind?" I smirk slightly as she glares halfheartedly at me, curious.

"Basically I couldn't figure out how I was going to get the bugged clothes to not work so I just took them off."

"That's a real genius right there," she remarks sarcastically, letting out a laugh as I hit her playfully. "Although if you really look at it, it is smart and creative."

"Thanks," I mutter before assuring, "Now the camera angles will hide most of the skin so you won't actually show some full blown nudity-"

"Still never been half naked with another girl in front of a camera before," she murmurs quietly.

"Uh, huh," I roll my eyes, earing a glare in return. "As for the scar, we can leave it in there, kind of as a character trait of Liza."

"...Okay, I guess that could be good," Vega nods softly.

"That reminds me," I start curiously, for the movie's and my sake, "Have you ever done this before?"

"What, kiss a girl?"

"Yeah... Have you?"

"Well yeah, kind of also lost my virginity to one," she mutters slyly. I nearly choke on my drink once I heard the small addition in the answer.

"Wait, so you're gay?"

"I'm not completely sure... I haven't really known for sure since high school and made _some_ progress in the past year but... yeah." I watch as she shifts a bit uncomfortably.

"Hey, it's alright you know."

"I know it is, but I haven't told my mom yet and she can be a bit harsh... She really wants grandchildren and I've never actually thought of having children of my own. And then there's actually a lot of people like Ryder I seem to cross paths with."

"Yeah, speaking of that idiot, I didn't pick him to be in the movie. Though I suppose you already knew that." She nods slightly, still not looking all that comfortable. "Hey, at least you aren't alone."

"Really?"

"Do you really think a straight girl would put a lesbian sex scene in a movie that has a best friends who has a crush on the main person?" She chuckles a bit before I joined in.

"I forgot you're kind of a perv."

"Kind of?"

"What have you been getting yourself into lately?" Vega raises one eyebrow before turning her head to the side.

"Uh... yeah. Maybe some clubs with all of these random support beams, and then there's all these documentaries on the TV-"

"Uh, huh... On what channel?"

"I don't know. But seriously, I recorded the documentary if you want to watch it," I shoot before even thinking about what I said. It was too late and I sat, my mouth shut firmly while Vega seemed to think it over. A small smirk spreads across her lips as her eyes danced across the ceiling.

"I'll think about it... Yeah, sometime when I'm not busy," she smiles at me before excusing herself to the restroom. As she left, I watched as she walks away, dodging the mass of people serving and eating.

"You two having fun there?" I hear a familiar voice ask behind me.

"Yes... Were you eavesdropping Mr. Wither?" I smirk as I turn around to face him.

"No, just a man with some beer," he remarks innocently, holding a glass mug of alcohol. "Jack Daniels sure is pleasant today," he murmurs before taking another sip.

"Uh, huh... So what are you going on about?"

"Nothing. Just wondering what's gonna happen between you two." I return his grin before I notice Vega is back and we indulge ourselves in another conversation, forgetting the man behind us. Well, I did at least.

-o0o-

"Alright, yeah. I know but you boys are staying outside!" I bark, sending a few others striding over to their friends. The morning had already been hectic from having to set up into a house I rented for the movie. And then I needed to get all of the cameramen away because, to be frankly honest, all of them were just graduates and none of them were all that immature.

"What about him?" one of the stubborn few pointed to the cameraman with the afro stepping up the stairs.

"None of your business now go off with your friends," I mutter before closing the front door in front of his face. My head shakes slightly as I join the last one by the stairs.

"Yeah, so why am I allowed-"

"You're gay and not immature," I mumble quietly, earning a confused expression as we go up the stairs. We make our way up the attic where the cameras were set up and the two lovely actors met with each other. I realized just that morning that this would be their first scene together, talk about breaking the ice...

"Sarah, Vega?" I call over, "You two ready?"

"We're meeting each other before a freaking sex scene Jade! Give. It . _Time_ ," Vega snaps before Sarah could say anything. The blonde just shrugs and continues to mingle before I bark back.

"Why didn't you do that last week?"

"Because you were talking to me, West!" I smirk slightly to myself as I heard the slight fire in the voice, quietly adding to the subtle buzzing sensation just below my stomach.

"Miss West, how long will this take?"

"As long as it will be Mr. Wither, why?"

"I just feel strange in this room full of women," he mumbled quietly as he looked around.

"How come?" I snicker as m assistant just gives me a look and walks over to his chair. My steps follow suit towards my own chair, and roughly ten minutes later, we're starting. I pull out a comically large cone with a handle and quietly bellow, "Alright... So we need a good amount of talent, beauty and action. Stop giggling Racheal. Now, this has to be good otherwise this movie will be rated pg13. Don't give me that look Vega, I'll have you fired."

"Try looking for someone that looks like me."

"Strike one, now get to the stairs both of you."

"Out of how many strikes?"

" _Just-get-to-the-stairs,_ " I snap, my mind answering her with 'infinity'.

"And we make out up the stairs?" the blonde asks curiously.

"Ask Vega."

"But you're-"

" _Ask Vega_ , I'm not the one you're going at it with, I'm just sitting in this comfortably chair with my assistant watching." I smirk as both of the girls just shrug before going down the stairs.

"Why did you have to bring me into this?"

"Because you get paid?" I ask.

"You're a bit snarky today aren't you?" he chuckles as I shouted 'Go!'.

-o0o-

The cameras roll as everyone watches the two step up the stairs clumsily, lips locking furiously. 'Liza' leans against the rail as 'Gretel' starts to kiss at the neck. She then pulls Vega across the room by the tie of the retail uniform, eventually pushing her onto the bed, jacket coming right off.

Smirking slightly, I yell, " _NO_!", cutting the scene short.

"What is it this time Jade?" Tori snaps, glaring at me obvious entertainment.

"You're too dominant, you're too not dominant," I shrug.

"Come on, this is the _19th_ take." Both of the girls get up and Vega walks over, arms folded.

"What?"

The half-Latina just looks at me before grinning mischievously, "So you want rated 'r' huh?"

"Uh, yeah," I raise an eyebrow as she smirks.

"Well, sit tight then," she mutters before whipping her hair around and striding away.

"You know what Miss West, could I go downstairs?"

"Why?"

"Uh," Mr. Wither shifts uncomfortably, "Because you told me there would be only a few takes and now I can't take it anymore."

"What?" He stands up, his arm covering his pants before he sighed.

"Look, I know what game you're playing. Now excuse me but I'm going upstairs," he hisses before I snicker. Chuckling slightly, he murmurs, "You're just abusing the fact that you only need to stand there and look innocent while you need a change of panties."

"Don't ever say panties to me again," I snap teasingly.

" _Panties_ ," Mr. Wither mutters before dashing past everyone and down the steps. I laugh to myself and start the scene again, thoroughly entertained.

Steps bound up the stairs clumsily, 'Gretel' gripping 'Liza's' sides tightly. Vega runs her hand through the blonde locks as the other grasped the jacket tightly. Within moments, Sarah falls onto the bed, pulling the tie down with her as Vega continues to kiss just below her left ear. A leg grinds in between 'Gretel's' and the blonde lets out and unexpected moan.

My face pulled into one of shock and pleasure as I watched Tori undo her tie and unbutton her top, leaving it loose as she began to undress Sarah. "Oh God Liza," the blonde breathed as she felt cool hands feel her sides as lips pressed against her collarbone. Multiple moments of deep breathes and shirting pass, and they are under the covers, topless and lips locking hungrily. I smile slightly as I see their chests pressed together, feeling a tingling sensation under my bra as I watched the dim light dance on the caramel skin and the long scar on her right shoulder.

"Okay, we can go to the more important stuff to the scene," I call out, breaking the kiss. Half a minute later, the cameras roll again, even though we could have just cut the other footage out, and Vega has her arm wrapped around Sarah, who looks at the sheets, pondering.

"Liza?"

"Hmm?" she answers, eyes glaring at the slightly pale back.

"Do you, do you trust me?" 'Gretel' asks throatily.

"...Yes."

"I need a favor, will you do it for me please?"

"...Alright, what is it?" Tori mumbles quietly, a frown spreading across her face.

"Come with me to this house... It's only down the street."

I smirk, shouting, "OKAY! THAT'S GOOD ENOUGH," through the cone. Both of the girls jump suddenly, grumbling as they are handed robes to drape over themselves. Once they are tied tightly, the two shake hands and Vega strides over to me.

"That good enough for you?" she purrs, a hand tracing down my shoulder towards my forearm.

"Yeah," I smirk.

"Good. If you fucking use another take I swear I will find you-"

"And do what?" Her eyes roll and she walks away, looking back with a devilish smirk that makes my mind go completely numb. After a few minutes, the girls are fully clothed and one of the camerawomen makes an announcement for this event at a hotel not too far away. Most people agreed to go, including Vega and I, so that was our plan for tomorrow night. "This is a really busy week," I whisper to myself as we take a lunch break before the next few scenes.

-o0o-

Because the event was casual, I headed over to the hotel in a leather jacket and black jeans. Mr. Wither explained that it was one of his son's 16th birthday so I excused him from the event, like he really needed to be here anyway. I push myself through the heavy doors and into the reserved area for the event which ended up having a lot of other celebrities there.

As it was happy hour, many of them were well on their way of being drunk and I decided against getting anything at all that night. My gaze goes around, and I sigh gruffly once I found Vega with Charles, laughing as she drinks a margarita. So, for most of that night, I just shook hands and smiled falsely at the people who I hated and smirked genuinely at the people I didn't know. Constantly, I would often wonder what the other two were doing and, sure enough, they were together.

My phone rang in the pocket of my jacket and I pull it out and rolled my eyes. "Yes Beck?" I snap.

"Come back."

"Bye Beck."

"Wait, no! Hold on, let me... Uh, let me say something."

"Okay, and?" I murmur, tapping my foot impatiently.

"So you free this week?"

"No, I'm filming and no I'm not getting back together with you."

"What?"

"Believe it or not Oliver, once again I'll say this, but I'm _not_ going to crawl back to you. Say goodbye to Jack and all of his friends then we'll talk," I bark into the phone, not knowing really what the response would be.

"Fuck you." Well, that was blunt.

"Not with you," I hiss, hanging up angrily. I turn my heels and nearly ran into Charles.

"You having a bad call?" he asks, slightly concerned.

"My fucking ex, what do you need," I snap solemnly.

"Oh, I'm about to leave but I can't find Tori anywhere."

"What does that matter to you?" I turn my head a bit.

"Well, for one I'm her friend," he shrugs before adding, "and I said I would drop her off the hotel she was at and then she assured me that she could walk herself."

"Okay, I see no problem so far..."

"So far. Miss West, I need to leave because my uber is here and I can't find her. She's _really_ drunk and she took another ride here; her hotel is a little ways."

"Okay, I'll find her. Go off and she'll be with me."

"Thank you, maybe you should take her home-"

"For some good morning treatment? Do you think this hangover will be a bitch?"

"A complete bitch, yeah," he nods.

"Okay, thanks for telling me. I'll get to it."

"No problem, see you on Monday," he waves as he strides off. _Damn you Charles, why do you have to be such a fucking gentleman?,_ my thoughts hiss jealously as my mind replayed her hugs and smiles towards him. Seriously, how can I pin him as a bad dude when his crime is being the complete opposite.

Looking around, I sigh as I watch Vega stumble out the side door, looking stupidly happy. Shaking my head, I walk over and follow her through the near full parking lot. "Vega, what the hell are you doing."

"Jade," she slurs as her gaze flips over to me. "Hi, I'm going to the hotel, it's... um... somewhere."

"That's helpful. Come on, I'll take you to my place-"

"For a sleepover? Oh! We can watch that documentary you were talking about..." Her steps trail towards me as if it went through marshes with multiple staggering trees like her feet.

"How many drinks did you have Tori?" I ask as she nearly falls face first into a tree stump after tripping on air.

"Uh... Lets see, there were about three of those margaritas.. Those are good. Then there's some shots, and these kind gentleman who kept calling me over and gave me some beers. I forget how many though." Her face fell and she looked at me with searching eyes, "The fuck?"

"What?" I snap as she continues to almost glare at me until she broke into a smile.

"You called me Tori!"

"Yeah, because- just follow me," I snarl, gripping her wrist and pulling her towards me car. Once she slid in the passenger seat, a laugh escaped her lips and I just look at her with a raised eyebrow.

"Nothing, I just thought of something," Vega waves slightly at me, assuring her sanity.

"And what's that?"

"Your cat in a pink tutu prancing around in the 'Nutcracker'."

"Shit Vega, are you high as well?" I spat as the car rumbled on. For a moment, she just looks at the dashboard, buckling the seatbelt. "Vega, the fact that you have to think about it says a lot."

"But there wasn't anything at the 'event' other than the alcohol... What was the event for again?"

"I think awareness for-" I suddenly burst into a small fit of laughter before chuckling out, "Drunk driving."

"And what's so funny about that?"

"Uh, they hosted it during happy hour, as _you_ know," I snap playfully. My car pulls out of the parking lot and onto the highway where I listen to Vega's babble about random shit that came to her mind. I tuned her out most of the time until my gaze flickered from her to the road briefly.

"I would stay at my house but the hotel seems better."

"What do you mean by that?" I murmur quietly.

"Well, my dog is there, sure, but Trina moved to Arizona and now my parents are arguing so much these days..."

"Really?"

"Yeah, they never had a perfect relationship, but it was a good one. Until mom started cheating behind my dad's back... Drinking became a habit, oddly enough for my mom but not my dad. I never understood that."

"With the drink you can't understand it all the time," I whisper, my voice cracking a bit.

"You had problems with drinking too?" she asks curiously. I nod slightly, keeping my eyes firmly on the road.

"When I was about six maybe I started seeing more and more glasses out and I immediately got a bad feeling from it. My dad ended up hitting me because of his drinking problems and my mom drank too because of my dad's drinking. They fought, a _lot_ , and I was always in caught in the cross fire."

_"Ben why don't you just go off and be with her then! You obviously don't care about shit for your daughter!" a tall brunette screeched as a bottle flew, smashing against the wall right over my head and my dad's shoulder._

_"And why don't you just go and fuck yourself then! I get all the money to put a roof over our heads and a meal on the table, why the hell would I ever cheat on you?" he snapped angrily, almost backing into me._

_"Stop," I whispered, clinging onto a small stuffed bear. The dog on the other side of the room scampered off and I went off to follow the beagle. Suddenly, I felt a pain in my shoulder and I'm lifted up by under my armpits._

_"What are you doing out of bed Jade?!" he shouted at me, shaking me violently._

_"I-I just, wanted to be tu-tucked in," I whimpered hoarsely. My hand and feet stung as I fell to the ground, my left hand still clutching the bear._

_"Don't talk to her that way you bastard!" my mother hissed. I made my way over to get past her when the bear was ripped from my grasp. "And_ you _don't interrupt our conversations God dammit Jade!" she spat as the bear was thrown across the room. Instead of getting my favorite toy that I needed in order to sleep, I bolted straight to my room where I cried. Later that night, about 11:45, I crept downstairs where they still argued and screamed at each other, I grasped the bear, whose bow tie was now gone and his tuff of hair now disheveled._

I feel a warmth on my right thigh and look down, realizing I'm at a red light. My slightly blurred gaze turns over to Vega who smiles gingerly at me. For a moment, we look into each other's eyes, reaching some understanding that hadn't been touched at all while we attended Hollywood Arts.

"Light's green," she murmured, her face bathing in a light green.

"Yeah," I nod as I turn to the road again, driving the rest of the few minutes in silence.

-o0o-

My face pulled itself into a cringe as I heard the shatter down the hall a foot behind me. My head turns wearily and I see Tori staring wide-eyed at the ground where pieces of glass lay shattered. "Was that expensive?"

"Um, not really... Just an antique item from Russia."

"Oh, fucking shit I'm sorry," she cursed, putting a small grin on my face.

"We're even now, you break that thing and I stain your grandma's pillow."

I watched as her face turned gleeful as she stepped over the glass and followed me down the hall, "Oh yeah, my mom was so pissed at that... But I told her that I dropped my mascara on it so you're fine. Just don't put your face next to it and she might be suspicious."

"Do you have a house of your own?" I ask suddenly, the question just randomly popping into my head as I opened the door to the guest bedroom.

"Not really, been saving up for something though," she mumbled thoughtfully as her back thumped against the thick comforter, "Why?"

"Oh, no reason..." I mutter, closing the door. "Good night."

"G'night Jade..."

I heave a soft sigh as I grab a vacuum from a nearby closet and clean up the glass. My brows furrow slightly as I place the vacuum back once I heard giggling in the room. Having nothing else to do I creep over and open the door to find Salem kneading Tori's chest, who is giggling.

"Jade, your cat is fun."

"Uh, yeah. I know that... Salem get off of her," I snap, pulling the black cat from her, hissing when his claws snagged her shirt. Once he was down the hall, I go back and close the door, halting down the hall once I heard more giggling. "I swear I will put duck tape over your mouth Vega..." I whisper as I padded my way over to the guest room.

Over in the corner, there is Vega sitting on the computer with multiple tabs open. I watch as one closes and one increase in size. She turns over and smirks at me, "Hey Jade... Want to see?"

"What?" I groan as I step over her forgotten jacket. My jaw nearly dropped as I watched some girls in bed.

"Why the fuck are you watching lesbian porn?" I hiss curiously as I watched one of them orgasm from oral.

"You know, when it's the really stuff and not just straight blondes who don't know what the hell they're doing, it's the best." I shake my head at her gleeful expression as I unplug the computer and pick her up. Once I throw her back onto the bed, I grumble slightly at her laughs.

"Shut the hell up Vega... You're not a giggling little school girl."

"No, I'm a _perverted_ giggling little school girl and you're the horny director and you have a cat that's... a pedophile?"

" _What the hell are you on_?" I sputter out, staring at her. Did she really just say all of those things?

"A bed... What?" she grins, "The smart ass hates other smart remarks? Hey, that was a good one... Okay, good night Jade!" I close the bed, shaking my head. Once the door closed, I let out a small chuckle; it was a good one, I'll give her that much. Deciding I may need a shot seeing where this night was going, I pulled out a bottle of whisky and pour out a small cup because why not.

Before I could even get back to the shot glass after placing the now opened bottle back I hear the damn giggling again. Quickly letting the short burning sensation drown my throat, I pad my way over to find Vega with a sharpie marker drawing on an outlet. "What - the fuck - are - you doing - Vega?"

"I'm drawing eyebrows on the outlets. See this one has a uni-brow, that one over there-" she gestures to the one down the hall, "are sad and the guest room's are angry." The marker starts to sketch over the white wall part, "And this one is the one that has the one eyebrow up thing- yeah, what you're doing right now Jade... Hold on, I'll uh, I'll get the piercing. There." She smiles fondly at her new masterpiece, which looks not bad for drunken garbage. "Can I sleep in your room?"

"No."

"What? Why not?"

"Because... just no," I mutter, recalling Vega in a robe and underwear.

"Okay, but I want to look in your room!" she rushes before bolting down the hall.

"Wait, _fuck,_ TORI GET BACK HERE!" I bellow as I nearly rammed myself into the wall from the tile. My ears perk at a loud thud, informing me that she was a few rooms down, rubbing her head from her collision with an immovable object called a wall. I startle her, wrapping my arms around her waist as she stumbles back. We fall onto the couch behind us and I land on top. "The hell has gotten into you?"

"It's a cool house..."

"Thanks, but stop being a little shit!" I hiss as she continues to giggle. "Oh, want to play that game huh?" I ask before I launch a tickle attack, getting out all of the excitement from her system.

"Jade... Stop, I will- _shit_ , Jade cut it out! Jade-" she fumbled through her slurred words as I continue rampage, chuckling myself. "God damn it Jade, stop tickling m-" she starts before letting out a deep moan. I halt immediately, staring at the stupid grin plastered across her face. "That feels good," she mumbles.

I frown slightly and then I look down. Oh, my waist is in between her legs... Huh. Filtering through the thoughts in my brain, I pick her up, legs draping over my shoulder, and make my way down to the basement. "So... we're we goin'?"

"Downstairs."

"Why?"

"It's my bedroom, numbskull."

"Oh, so I can sleep in there?"

"Only because it's the only thing that will shut you up," I grumble slightly impatiently.

"That's true," I feel her nod. "You have a nice ass Jade... Do you work out?"

"Yes, now no more drunk questions from you, got it?"

"Okay, can I state drunk things then?"

"Just go to sleep Vega," I mutter, plopping her on the bed.

"Okay Jade... Good night," she yawns, shifting under the dark covers.

"M' hmm," I nod, sitting myself on the chair in the corner, watching as she dozed off. I smile slightly, standing up and padding my way towards her. My head turns to the side, curious of the dreaming expression. "Good night Tori," I whisper softly before planting a kiss on her forehead. As I pulled away, I smile gingerly at the grin on her face.

For a while, I watched her sleep like a creepy stalker and grinned before changing into pj's and slipping under the covers.

I doze as Salem stared at us, kneading in between our asses. I swear this cat...


	5. Chapter 5

My limbs shift underneath the covers and I feel around the cold sheets, smiling slightly finding nobody next to me other than my perverted cat. "Should we check on Vega?" I ask Salem, who just looks at me.

 _Uh, she nearly threw up all over me last night, what do you think shit head?,_ I imagine him retorting. Why does he curse so much in my head? It's a really mystery to me...

I push myself out of bed and step over to the bathroom. My head turns to the side when I see Vega where I left her; in the bathtub. She blinks herself awake and glares at me, flipping the bird, "Fuck you."

"Why me?" I gasp innocently.

"Uh, I go to sleep in a comfortable bed and then I wake up in a fucking bathtub. I accidentally kicked the water on _twice_ ," she hisses while I smirk.

"Not my fault, do you remember last night?"

"Like what?"

"Oh, I don't know... How much you drank, the drive here, me saying goodnight while you giggled because of Salem, watching porn on the computer, drawing eyebrows on outlets. And then you make me chase after you and you run into a wall which lead to a tickle fight."

"Yeah..." she grins, "But you initiated the tickle fight, not me."

"Uh huh, but do you remember nearly vomiting all over my cat?" I snap.

"Not that part," she rubs her head. "God this hangover's a bitch."

"Hey that's what Charles and I said last night!"

"Oh dammit... My head hurts," Vega murmurs, moving to get up. She looks down at herself and realizes she is in some of my pajamas. "Wha-?"

"You did throw up Vega, just not all over my bedroom."

"Where?"

"All over my toilet, I'll tell you though, you have great aim."

"I'll show you great aim," she mumbles before chucking a soup bar that hit the wall after I ducked just in time.

" _Shit_! Are you done with that?" I hiss as she climbed out of the tub.

"Now I am, but you didn't even give me a blanket."

"Whatever." The half-Latina glares at my simple shrug as she follows me up the stairs to the kitchen. I make us both coffee, because why not, though Vega got decaf since I don't really think she needs a whole lot of caffeine right now.

"So, is there anything else I did?" Vega asks as we sit down on the couch.

"Not that I know of... Why?"

"I feel like we're missing something... Oh well," she sips from a glass of water, "now I can see the documentary."

"Right," I nod, hitting 'play'. As soon as it started, I found myself enjoying the company not only of my cat, who stared at us throughout the whole thing, but also Tori as well, who curled up in a little ball underneath a blanket. "Hey, you look like a turtle," I snicker.

"Shut the hell up and watch the half-naked women dance," she hisses before adding, "It's the only comfortable position." Both of us frown once my phone vibrated against the counter next to my keys. I stride over and gave out a low groan.

"All be back Vega," I mutter before walking outside.

"Babe-"

"I am not your 'babe'."

"Whatever, move. Now. Or I'll bang every girl in town," I roll my eyes as his words slurred heavily.

"Will you get money from it, because that's call prostitution Beck."

"No, just for fun," he quietly murmurs.

"Oh, so you're just planning to be a man-slut." I continue once I hear a grumble from the other line, "Look, why are you calling? I have company over."

" _Who_?"

"Why does it matter who the fuck is over? Why should you care?"

"I do care..."

"That wasn't my question. It was why _should_ you care, not whether you did or didn't."

"Hey, I did a lot for you-"

"When we went to Hollywood Arts yeah. But you didn't pick your ass off the couch while I went about and got money for the _both_ of us Beck. All you did was suggest nice restaurants to go to while I paid for them."

"I said I would work on it."

"And to work on it you need a job. By the way do you actually have one?"

"My uncle's supporting me while I find a job."

"Have you actually started looking for one yet," I question, doubting if he actually tried.

"Fuck you," he spat angrily. At this point, I hang up and make my way inside to find Vega sitting on the couch, holding Salem up like one of the strippers on the TV.

"I think he could be good if you gave him a pole for Christmas," she laughs as Salem purrs.

"Yeah no, Salem, no. No kitty clubs will be hosted." The two of us laugh as he scampers off towards his food bowl. As he crunched loudly, I ask, "What time is it?"

"You have the phone."

"Right... huh, it's 12:29."

"So what do we-" she starts until her gaze shifts over towards the door. I curse quietly as I get up to go back over to the door. I open it and raise my pierced eyebrow at the three big Amazon boxes littering the ground around a mail man.

"Uh... Tori Vega here?"

"What is this?"

"I don't know, I didn't order it... But it's Amazon prime so..."

" _Vega_ ," I bark, cutting off the timid delivery person. She grudgedly steps over and stares at the boxes.

"I knew we forgot something..."

" _What_?"

"I got an Amazon gift card a few weeks ago. I might have used it last night."

"How'd it get here so quickly?"

"I don't know," I shrug exasperatedly.

"Hey, uh could you sign this sheet, Ms. Vega?"

"Sure," she mumbles as a pen scribbles over a piece of paper.

"Hey, aren't you the director and you the actor of the new movie?"

"...Yeah, why?" I ask before rolling my eyes at his smirk. "Look at us like that again and you'll have to order two eye patches."

"Jade, be nice!" Vega shakes her head, "But dude, seriously. We're not together, so stop looking at us like that."

"Why not? You two would be ho-" I nearly strangled the man right then and there, cursing at him for assuming that I was dating Vega. Luckily for him, he had quick feet and Tori had a strong grip. Once I calm down a little, she helps pick up the boxes which weren't that heavy.

"The hell did you buy?" I snap as she opens one of them.

"Box one: Legos."

"Box two?"

"More Legos."

"And three is, why did you buy three fucking boxes of Legos?"

"You ask me."

"Just did."

"Oh, I mean drunk me..." she slyly grins. "So what do we do with them?"

"Build?"

"Okay... Oh! Maybe we should forget the manuals and build our own little town!"

"Alright... We can set up on the floor here."

"Why not on the table?"

"Do you really think we'll have room?"

"Guess not," she nods. We took nearly half an hour to put the pieces in piles of color just to make it easier on ourselves. Once we started to actually build, within about three hours we had around five buildings done.

"Do you have a red block?"

"You'll have to be more specific than that Vega."

"Okay, do you have a red cube?" she hums as her hands search through the pile. "Never mind, found one." After a few more seconds, she speaks again, "Hey Jade?"

"Agnnn, _what_?" I snap.

"What are you building?"

"You first."

"I asked first," she pouts.

"Fine... I figured that our little town should have a bit of flare in it." She looks at my smirk, unsatisfied. "You?"

"A dog park... Are you building a strip club?" she hisses once I had just put in a pole.

"No. This for support," I say truthfully, "That one over there is a strip club," I point to my first one.

"What's the second one you built?" Vega put her hand over her forehead.

"A tattoo parlor."

"Oh God, and I've built houses."

"Uh, huh. This is a motel," I mutter as I started with the second floor. She nods, not wanting to ask anymore questions and we continue to build in a comfortable silence until I had the best idea. I snatched two of the figures from a separate pile for the characters. My grin deepens as I realize they are two girls in bikinis.

Before I can start anything, I receive a call. "Hello?"

"Hello Miss West, do you have some papers of mine?"

"The script copies?"

"Yes."

"Yeah, why?"

"I need to get them, so could I?"

"Sure," I mumble as my left hand built a small room in my motel.

"Alright, I'll be there to pick them up... See you."

"M'kay."

"Who was that?" Vega asks as I put the phone down on the ground.

"Wither, he needs to get some papers."

"Ah." I let the silence go on for a few more minutes before starting the small whispering of my characters.

"But Betty, what about your-"

"Shhh. Nobody will know, just go to the room," the brunette purrs to the blonde in a ridiculously high voice.

"But- but," the blonde stutters through her strange, altered voice, "Will anyone hear us?"

"Sure they will, but nobody knows us here." I snicker quietly as I began to press the yellow heads together and made smooching sounds. Out of the corner of my eye I see Tori shift uncomfortable a little bit as she placed a small dog on the green blocks.

"Wait... Betty, the-the room."

"Okay," Betty mumbles in a quiet voice as they magically flew up to the room I set up. "Now we ready?"

"...yeah," the blonde whispers and I put the small plastic girls on the bed and the blonde is bent over while the brunette is right behind her. Once the blonde was firmly attached to the bed, I started to move the brunette, trying my hardest not to laugh at Vega's shaking stature. I start a stream of moans in between, "Betty, put it in harder! You're good with that strap-on..."

"Jade, what the fuck are you doing?" the half-Latina hisses as they grew louder.

"Trying out my motel," I shrug innocently.

"Why? Why do you have to be such a-"

"What? Such a what?" I smirk, "You know, I think I'll put my strip club next to the dog park."

"Uh, no you're not."

"Why?"

"Because a children's toy is not meant to be suited for your imagination," she rolls her eyes.

"What? Oh come on, you liked it." My laughs start to get harder to manage as I saw her cheeks burn red as she snatched Betty out of my hands. "Hey! Give her back!" I snap, jumping on top of Vega to get the brunette.

"No! Our little town can't have little bikini sluts around!"

"Why not? It makes it diverse," I plead, still trying to reach for the figure. "Damn you have long arms Vega."

"Now will you quit it?"

"No! Give me back Betty!"

"I'm going to build a police station to shove Betty inside," she retorts.

"I'll tell your dad that you're abusing the law."

"No, you're the one scarring the Legos."

"You're the one that taught them to buy shit when you're drunk," I smirk as I see a hint of glee gleam in her eyes. For a small moment, I fight the urge to lean down and kiss her when I felt her hand cup my face. Before anything exciting happens, a bellow rings in the living room.

"WHAT ARE YOU TWO DOING?" Mr. Wither yells, gawking at the unexpected scene. Immediately we quickly explain that Vega bought Legos while she was drunk and the stuff I built for my entertainment. "But.. but that doesn't explain why you are on top of her Miss West..." he sputters out weakly once the two of us threw each other under the bus. I feel a slight warmth on my cheeks as I look and see how close I am to Vega.

Immediately we separate, wearing small grins matching with our embarrassment. "So, uh, needed the scripts?" I ask in a monotone voice.

"Yeah, where are they."

"On the counter right there..." my hand gestures over to the kitchen.

"Oh, I see them," my assistant mumbles as he strides over. "So, uh we don't talk about this?"

"No," Vega and I say in unison.

"Yes, okay... I wouldn't know how to explain anyway... Uh, see you Monday then," his head dips down momentarily before leaving. Once the sound of an engine strolling past fades away, both of us break into a sudden laughter before we stood up to clean the Legos, deciding to eat.

"What do you have?"

"Uh, cereal."

"Okay, good enough," she hums as I poured out Cocoa Pebbles. We ate on the couch next to the sleeping cat, watching whatever our hearts desired. For a while, I just accepted for what it was, just having Vega around, something I seemed to have taken advantage of years ago.

-o0o-

Vega turns around, hearing the explosion off in the distance. Her breathe is seen in the chilled air as she growls impatiently. Charles comes out from the trees, looking mortified. "Liza... I-I didn't mean to... It blew up when she saw me, I ran away but... Gretel's still alive."

'Liza' clicks her tongue, staring at 'Marcus' with a cold stare. "Guess I'll have to take care of this myself," she mutters darkly as her pistol aims. Her newly former best friend's eyes widen under the moon lit night, taking a few steps back.

"Liza... please. It was a mistake, I didn't mean to..."

"Oh well," she shrugs, pulling the trigger. The bullets hit the ground and Charles quickly takes off the white buttoned up, exposing the torn, bloodied one underneath. He stumbles back and the cameras then turn to him as 'Liza' strides over and just gives a small smirk as she turns her head. "That was easy..."

"OKAY!" I shout, annoyed at the chill creeping up the August night's cold breeze. Nobody in California expected the nights to drop by ten degrees, although I used the abnormal weather to shoot some scenes during the night. So, by this time, some scenes are shot during the day and the others at night. Most of the main scenes were now done, but there still was the torture scenes and the several 'in between' scenes left.

Vega helped Charles up and strode over, putting the gun down gingerly on the table beside me. "Told you I could shoot."

"When did you learn?" I murmur, handing the two actors some coffee.

"Sometime around fourteen or fifteen. So, on top of boxing, I'm well protected with some weapons."

"And why boxing?" the actor asks curiously.

"My dad saw I had quick reflexes and liked to punch so it kind of works." He chuckles softly, taking another sip before turning to me, "Do you know a protection skills?"

I smirk softly as I felt cold metal whip out from my belt and point to his cup. As he let out a small squeak, I mutter, "I know a thing or two about scissors."

"Good to know," he nods, a small smile crawling on his lips. "We done for the night?" Charles asks, looking at his watch.

"Yeah, just about." He stretches and goes off to change in the house not too far away. Vega is just about to say something when a snicker jumps her.

"How are you two doing," Ryder steps forward, changed into his normal clothes instead of the mask and black clothes he had on.

"Why do you want to know?" Vega asks, frowning slightly. Ever since the movie started, Daniels had always found a way to pester Vega relentlessly, leading Charles to get him away.

"Because I read an article online a few days ago... What are you doing at her house every so often?" he smirks.

"I'm not the only one," she snaps, "Some of the others were there too."

"But not over night."

"Hey, why don't you go and read your article," I snarl, guiding Vega back over to the house. We both knew exactly what article he was talking about. There had been a couple here and there about us being closer or a couple, but they weren't really an issue. It was this one that accused Vega of sleeping with me for the part, even though Mr. Wither had told random people several times that I wasn't even able to see her for the auditions.

Since the last time we got together, aka, when Vega got really drunk, she had spent nights over my and Charles' house to escape the conflict at home. It had gotten worse by the week, and Vega couldn't take it anymore. Sure, she still had the hotel room, although it began to feel lonely so she went with us. More often, however, she would go with Charles, which I loathed.

"Hey," speaking of the devil, "Tori? You need a ride?"

"Yeah, thanks Charles. See you tomorrow Jade?" I nod solemnly as I watch them climb into his car and leave. My blood suddenly boiled and I took it out on a trashcan, kicking it over. Luckily, there wasn't anything in it however I did startle one of the makeup artists who was talking to another employee.

"Sorry," I mumble as the bin is placed back, "Uh..." I start as I analyzed the dent now on the side of it before walking away.

"Hey, Miss West?"

"Yes?" I turn around, surprised to see Sarah still here.

"Mr. Wither is looking for you."

"Okay, where is he?"

"In the kitchen," she answers, "Goodnight."

"Goodnight," I bade back as she jogs over to the front door. I walk over to the kitchen, as Racheal said, and find Mr. Wither who turns and gives me a quick smile. "Yes?"

"We have a slight problem..."

"What is that?"

"Someone keeps sending angry messages at the phone here."

" _What_? Who?" I snap anxiously, frowning slightly.

"I don't know but they're kind of threatening..." He hands over the phone and I listen to the messages. Yep, diffidently weak threats alright. As I listen, my glare hardens as my foot taps the ground.

"Of course it's money... God, do you think they know that they're just props?"

My assistant only shrugs and mutters, "I've already notified the police so we'll have this place guarded until the filming ends.

"Okay," I whisper wearily, "I'll tell everyone to be safe tomorrow just in case it isn't just some ass prank calling."

"Smart move," he nods. After a few more minutes, I'm in my car, sighing heavily. First damn Charles, now this ass. I can't get a break can I? My plan is to get home and just cuddle with my cat, and maybe finish the last few ounces of whisky.


	6. Chapter 6

_Vega sits herself down at the group's normal table alone. Cat was off doing something, Robbie was sick and Andre had an interview for a record label with one of his songs. My eyebrows knit together as I stood up with my sandwich at hand over to the table. I plop myself in front of her, watching as she pathetically plays with her salad with a fork. Beck was late for lunch, possible at detention for a stupid reason, so I just sat, taking a bite out of the rye bread sandwich._

_"Jade? Why are you sitting by me, shouldn't you be with Beck?" her voice suddenly rang in my ears, picking my gaze up to hers. She gave me a soft smile, waiting for an answer._

_Thickly I snap, "Because it's cold over there and the sun's out in this seat." I swallow the bite, hoping that she would buy it, though she didn't look too convinced. Nevertheless, she took it and we ate in a silence laced with mutual comfort as I tapped my foot nervously, wondering if she could hear it. Maybe she could, maybe not, though I doubted she knew what it meant. It had only been a few months since our 'date' and I couldn't help but recall the song played._

_Throughout the lunch, I constantly bit the inside of my cheek, wanting to speak yet my hands automatically brought the sandwich to my lips. It was a good sandwich, so I only ate._

My eyes blink open and for once I wake up before my cat. Grumbling slightly at the neon numbers reading '5:23', I decide to take an early shower to clear my head, or make it throb less. I climb out of bed, feeling the semi-warm air hit my bare legs and chest; in the time I slept, I grew a bit too hot for the bra so 'bam', it was thrown off.

Sighing as the water hit the tub floor, I wait patiently as my half-conscious thoughts seep away. Today's didn't, though I didn't really complain much as I step into the shower once my eyes registered the light steam fogging the mirrors. Right as the hot water touched my body, ironically, goose bumps prickled along my skin as I felt my chest unconsciously.

For a few moments, I just stand there as new thoughts sail across my mind, sinking me deeper into my subconscious, a few weeks before the quiet lunch.

 _I paced around, debating whether or not to knock on the door. It wasn't going to be the end of the world sure, but I couldn't help my heart pounding painfully against my chest. My hands shook slightly as I crept to the door for the fifth time. Grasping the doorframe, I began to feel my vision blur._ What is your problem Jade? She isn't going to bite, you do that, _my thoughts reminded me as I knocked the door heavily._

_Within moments, the front door swings open and I look up to see Vega, wearing her glasses and sweater. "Hey," she gasped, concerned. Out of habit, I just strode in and she just closes the door, joining me over to the couch. "So... what's wrong?''_

_My mouth opened and closed, little to no sound coming out. Thoughts became twisted like wires or Christmas lights left unattended for a year. "I-I want... I want- I," just say it Jade, come on!. "I want Beck back."_ You fucking moron... _, my thoughts hissed viciously as I glared at the floor._

_"Well, why don't you ask him then?"_

_"Because it's been months and I can't just ask him, what if he moved on?" I respond, mentally kicking myself in the ass. She nods slightly before wrapping her arms around me; I couldn't help but grip her back, harder. My face buries itself in her shoulder and I just let it all out, which was just silent tears instead of what normally would have come out. Perhaps I knew that it was too late, that this was my final chance and I squandered it and ran to my little hiding hole._

Yet, four years later, I have another chance. I smile as soap ran over my eyes; well, until I completely obliterated the bar of soap that burned my eyes. Once that was out of the way, however, I frown slightly as I smirk at myself. "The hell are you doing Jade? Just ask her... Yeah," I whisper at myself.

-o0o-

"Salem, do you think she'll say yes?" I continue with my imaginary conversation judging from my cat's glares.

_Feed me woman._

"I mean, she might."

_Yes, she's a hot woman. I like her boobs, they're not as fun as your but she giggles whenever I'm making biscuits so that's good. Now feed me._

"You don't have to be such a pervert cat."

_You're literally giving me a mocking voice. This is still your own thinking dipshit. Now FEED ME FOR THE LOVE OF GOD._

Rolling my eyes, I plop the wet food in the bowl, glaring at the cat who's now noisily licking the gravy off of the blob. Quickly checking the time, I hurry towards the front door, coffee at hand. I love coffee, I just want to say that out loud, it's almost better than scissors- _almost_.

About twenty minutes later my car rolls up to the one of the three rented houses for the movie and I smile for no reason. It quickly falls once I find that there would be people who would actually see it, although the spring in my step would give it away. After a couple of hours, the last of the scenes in that house, with the neighbor's introduction type deal, were finally done. Among the small flock of people, I find Vega sitting, chatting with- of course, Charles.

My steps padded my way there, and while I was about a few yards away, Charles is called over by some other actors. Perfect. "Hey, Vega?" I start, shrugging off any of the nerves escaping my body (I may have had a shot before I got here).

"Yes Jade?" she smiles as she turns around.

"Want to go to a restaurant tonight?"

"Sure, and after that?"

"My house?" I smirk at her, slightly hopeful.

"I don't want to be sleeping in a bathtub tonight Jade..."

"Okay, how about on the toilet?" I tease.

"I'd rather pick the bathtub," Tori grins. "So, details?"

Hurriedly I snatched the thoughts from my head, "There's this diner not too far from my house so it'll be casual. Meet there around 6?"

"Yeah... Still need the name of the place Jade," Vega chuckled slightly.

"Right, that's kind of important huh? Malts."

"Malts?"

"Just Malts," I nod.

"Okay, so meet you at just Malts then," she smiles as her gaze turns towards some makeup artists who would help her out of some of the makeup. As Vega strides over, I smirk slightly, feeling very accomplished with myself. Once she was out of view, I jumped gleefully before snapping at a person who laughed.

My smirk deepened as I watched them scamper off, I am the most professional director out there. Tim Burton, eat my heart out.

-o0o-

My thumbs fumble as I put on my belt as I felt my neck prickle. "Salem, quit staring at me. It's creepy and unnecessary," I growl as the black cat hopped down and rubbed against my calf. Shaking my head slightly, I mutter quietly, "You are pathetic cat."

Ignoring my comment, Salem just slinks out of the room like he wasn't called pathetic. Looking in the mirror, I nod to myself before striding up the stairs and feeding my oh so starving cat. I gaze at my phone anxiously and decide to wait around for a couple of minutes before leaving. It was only two thirds past five so I still had a bit of time to go.

Giving out a deep breath, I just played 'Angry Birds' for a few minutes before walking myself to the car. With the engine purring to life, I set off and- I'm in the parking lot within ten minutes. Why does time have to play with your head so much? Really. Why?

So I strutted towards the restaurant and frowned as I heard a second pair of footsteps behind me. Halting immediately, they didn't stop and before I could turn around, I am shoved between the restaurant and the building next to it. Once I did get the chance to whip around, scissors out, I see Beck standing there, looking far from sober. "What is your problem? Stalking me now?"

"I was thinking of that..." he started, "But this was just a coincidence." The Canadian wore a face unfamiliar to me, not holding any of the gentle, kind nature it once held. Puppy eyes were now dull coals, fuming with a livid flame. He strode over to me, and snatched my wrists in the grip he had held them months ago.

"Let me _go_!" I snarl, attempting to swing at him. It does nothing since his thumbs are digging into my joint. I feel my back hit the wall roughly, and my mouth let out a furious hiss before I felt harsh lips crash against mine. My hands find their way to his sides and I push against him with no outcome.

I feel his hands caress my back roughly as he starts to attack my neck. My eyes open just a little and I see a flash of brunette hair dart off. Recognizing the blur of the top, I suddenly feel pulses of absolute hatred burst through, over powering everything, even the angry shaking there prior, and shove all of my weight in my knee which hammers into his stomach. Once he releases me from his grasp, I kick him back, watching as Beck crashes against the trashcans behind him.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" I spit savagely. He looks up, shocked at the pure venom in my tone before getting back up.

"You're the one who just beat me, so what's wrong with you?"

"Why do you have to intervene at the worst possible time? I was meeting someone and now you ruined it you fucking ass!" He shrinks slightly, sneering at my cracked voice.

"Who?"

"Why does it matter?"

"Because you're mine and that's it."

"No I'm not. You made that very clear ever since you turned 21!" I lash out, "I've never been yours. I've just been your company."

"Who is it?" he interrogated.

Well, if he really wanted to know... "Okay. Fine, but don't you fucking start with any of your bullshit," I snap before letting him have _all_ of it. "Tori-fucking-Vega, that's who. You know, the girl you always looked at and tried to kiss? Yes, I saw. Check computer monitors before you start going at it with some girl who, by the way, didn't want it."

" _What_? You are a real bitch aren't you, planning to steal someone else I liked just because I'm not good enough for you."

As if that wasn't enough, my calm mask was then shattered; at that moment, all I could see was red and I felt like I could breathe fire. " _Are you kidding me_? When I first met her, I hated her Beck, yet she still wanted to be friends. When ever I would put myself out there like I would with anyone else, she didn't argue with it unlike _you_. You tell me that I cheat while on several occasions you've tried to go at it with her. Well guess what. I LOVE HER MORE THAN YOU CAN EVER KNOW SO GET THE FUCK AWAY AND LEAVE ME TO DO WHAT I NEED TO DO! NEVER HAVE YOU STEPPED ASIDE AND LET ME FIGURE THINGS HOW I NEEDED TO, ALWAYS JUST LETTING YOURSELF HAVE THE PERFECT IMAGE WHILE I'M SITTING OVER HERE WITH NOTHING BUTWHAT YOU DEEM TO OTHER PEOPLE!"

My breaths are sharp and I can't speak anymore, but I stare at him. Beck who looks speechless. "I'm not yours, get out of my life if you're going to continue to drink, I've had enough with alcoholics Beck. You're the third person, so get out like the other two." And that was it, I just left him there, not turning back or caring enough to do so. Right as I slipped the seatbelt over my shoulders, I hit the steering wheel and folded my arms on it, letting my head rest.

As I stared down at my thighs, the image blurred quickly and I felt hot drops on my jeans. It was over. All I want to do is just curl up in a ball and weep. So, ten minutes later, I'm naked in my bed, curled up in a ball, crying under the covers. While the blankets shook with my movements, I felt Salem hop up and crawl in between the covers and shift himself right against my chest.

I smile softly as I hug Salem, "Thanks cat." For a while, that's all it was. Dark, hot, naked, with a cat, purring and crying. You know, the usual. My lips let a hiss escape once I felt him start to lick my breasts, gliding over my nipples a couple of times. "Okay, too close," I murmur softly as I pull him out of the sheets. Deciding that I wanted to just sleep, I did just that for a hour before my phone came to mind.

My hands fumbled over it before calling Tori a few times. There was no answer and I didn't know what to say in the voice mail. Well, I did but since when has 'it isn't what it looks like' ever helped anybody. So, by around ten, I fell asleep, not bothering when my cat started to groom me again.

-o0o-

"Miss West?"

"Yes Charles?" I ask bitterly after a couple of days passed.

"Do you know why Tori isn't Tori?" I look over at his somber expression, feeling some sympathy which is rare when I'm suppose to hat him for talking to Tori too much.

"I don't really want to say..."

"Oh, alright." He gazes over at the actress, "It's unfortunate when you want to hear the little blue bird sing yet it won't make a peep."

"She has an amazing voice," I murmur softly.

"So I heard," he admits sourly. "Many tell me, and I asked her about it a couple of days ago and she just looks so _broken_."

"I know, I hate it too."

"So you really do care for her?" Charles asks curiously.

"More than you could comprehend." For a moment, I raise an eyebrow as the gears behind his eyes start working furiously.

"You want to meet up at a bar around seven tonight?" he mutters softly.

"Sure, why not. Have nothing else to do," I nearly snap.

"Alright... I'll see you later then." And he left, padding his way towards Vega. I shake my head solemnly before walking towards Mr. Wither, listening as he explains the weather patterns in the next coming week. I know what it is already; heavy rain storms. No sun. Pure darkness.

Hours later, I pull on my black leather jacket over a black shirt, with black jeans and boots to go with it. Because it is a bit colder out this night, I pull on a beanie as well. I buckled myself in and drove over to a gas station first, as my tank was nearly empty. As the meter went up, I cursed at myself mentally as the person beside me tried to make conversation.

"Say another word and I'll fill your tank with gasoline," I spat as the man continued to talk.

"Oh, so you want to get down in bed later, alright. Alright." He nods, smirking to himself and doesn't notice the pair of scissors shining menacingly near his chest. Once he let out a yelp, I hiss, "You want your dick cut off or that's just something you look forward to in bed as well?"

Nothing but silence followed as the rest of my tank filled up. Fifty dollars later and I'm driving away, leaving a scared looking teen by himself. "Ass," I mutter to myself before I roll my car onto the driveway. Once inside, my eyes adjusted to the warm glow of the bar. I sit myself at one of the bar stools and order a bottle of Budweiser, taking a sip as I gave the bartender the money. As the glass was set down on a coaster, I heard someone sit next to me and take a small sip before greeting himself.

"So, Miss West?"

"Why am I here?" I mumbled wearily.

"Look, what's with you and Tori?"

"It's a long story..."

"Alright, I already know it anyway."

"What?"

"She told me... Miss West? I'll make this quick, or try to anyway, but do you like her?"

"Why wouldn't I, don't you?" I turn my head, gazing at him. He chuckles slightly and takes another small sip.

"Yeah, I do. When I first saw her, hell I thought she was the one. I greeted myself and we had a nice conversation. I read her cues as interest, only to be pleasantly wrong." I frown at him slightly as he looked at me, "Miss West, when you came over to us... She had this look on her face that just told me that she wasn't the one. I was humored by your interactions, they're full of personality you know.

"You see, while I still do have feelings for her, I can't act on them. She's not mine, and that's fine. We can be friends." He shrugs before continuing, "She speaks very highly of you and, not to be rude, but I had to try very hard to see it. Now I do, but it was difficult. I feel it isn't really my place to say but, you need to talk to her, like now."

I sigh, "Right, but how do I explain?"

"Tell the long story, she stuck around you for years and still hasn't been bored of the read; you are a very interesting person, and that's not hard to see."

"Okay, but what do I do? I can't fucking function properly around her, it pisses me off."

"Of course it does," he laughs quietly, "But just talk to her. She'll listen, maybe hesitantly now but... You know, she's interested."

"Really? What about you?"

"Like I said, thought so until I saw her with you. When Ryder first snapped at her, she immediately told me that she hated that filthy word, and I agree... You know the one," he pointed out as I nod, "I think she made it very clear that she's just a friend. After all, she beat me at Mario Cart a million times."

I bite my lip for a moment before I look at him and just said, "Call me Jade."

Charles just looks shocked until he smiles, "Thanks. Until this project's over, I think I'll call you 'Miss West'... Wait, why me though?"

"You remind me of someone," I mutter.

"Who?"

"My ex actually, before he started drinking. I mean, he didn't lay off Tori after she told him multiple times that she wouldn't but, other than that, yeah."

"That's a bit ironic," he sighs. I raise my pierced eyebrow at him before he continues, "I just got out of rehab in January. Before that, I was a complete retarded ass, even when I before I became an alcoholic. I can have one or two drinks every now and then, but after three- I'm gone. You've had issues with drinking too, haven't you?"

"Both parents and ex," I mumble.

"Too bad, well. Go get her," he stated abruptly.

"Where is she?"

"Outside, probably waiting for a bus... I didn't tell her you'd be here but I didn't expect her to stay in the bar anyway."

"And I just-"

"Tell her, don't let anything hold you back just tell her... Although I would recommend keeping the interaction to a pg13 level."

"Thanks Charles," I mutter sarcastically as I get up, letting the bartender clear my drink.

"No problem Miss West," he replies as I head out the door, giving one look of hope back and happily earned a thumbs up. My hands suddenly felt sweaty and I gulped as I made my way towards Tori, who was indeed at the bus stop.


	7. Chapter 7

My legs guide me over towards the bus stop, halting right next to it. I lean onto it, watching as Tori sits on the bench, slightly shaking from the wind. The fact that it's really dark out and the starks twinkle, the stars still out from the light pollution anyway. Shaking my head, I form the words then ask them quietly, "Care to talk with me?"

"I am now," she shrugs in a monotone voice. There's a slight bitterness to it, though I try to look it over when continuing with the conversation.

"I'm, uh, I'm really sorry what happen."

"You sound sorry," she slurs sourly.

"I mean it. Do you want to go someplace warmer, like my car?"

"And then go home with you? No thanks."

"Well, it has wheels and it doesn't only go to my house so we could talk in there then I could drop you off," I plead. Vega thinks it over for a couple of seconds before she nods and follows me over to my car. Once we get in, the heater is eventually switched on.

"So why the hell is your ex kissing you in the back of the restaurant?" she snaps. My hand loosens it's unnecessary grip of the steering wheel; neither of us have seat belts on and I'm not driving without them.

"Ask him. Look, I'm sorry that it happened, Oliver certainly is once I kneed him into trashcans," I mumble, folding my arms.

"And why would Beck do that?" Tori turns her head.

"He's an alcoholic that won't leave me alone."

"Oh, I'm sorry... I didn't-"

"I didn't tell you, really so I'm fine," I finish, knowing where she was going with it.

"Still, I assumed and, I don't know," her head shakes as she chuckles nervously, "Everything with you seems complicated when it shouldn't."

"So I've been told."

Her chuckles die off after a while before she whispers hoarsely, "Do you know why he changed?"

"No, well. Kind of. A bunch of things I'm assuming but, I'm not 100% sure. All I know is that I'm not going back into that relationship and being friends is a bit debated at the moment."

"It's strange to think that I helped you get back with him, multiple times..." All I do is nod, and my heart thumps against my ribs as I begin to think my way through thing.

"The last time I didn't really want to get back with him actually, I was there for you but- I don't know, I ended up cowering over in my corner."

"Really?" her voice shakes slightly.

As I thumb over my wrist tattoo, I continue, "Yeah, I just couldn't bring myself to it. Ever since Sikowitz set us on that 'date' or whatever, I guess I started liking you. And that took its toll on me." I hear her shift in her seat, thinking about my words.

"Is it kind of funny that I felt the same way? I mean, I've never been interested in you but, God, how may times I stared at you that night. I just," Tori heaves a heavy sigh, "Why can't I just talk to you? It's fine when we're alone and just talking about random shit, but when we're with other people or just talking about our lives, it's the hardest task in the world..."

My gaze meets hers and I watch as she blinks to the ground, her back against the car door. "It's ironic to me how I 'hated' you or whatever yet I got to know you a bit better than everyone else and, to be frankly honest, want to get in your pants." She snickers at me, looking up and locking our soft stare.

"Well, I've heard more subtle ways than that but, okay." We continue to register each other's face, I focus mainly on her rust colored eyes, the way they slowly shine in the light from the dashboard. "But, yeah, it is strange... You know that when I saw that car coming, I was in the back of a taxi actually and I warned the driver but it wasn't soon enough."

A small frown knits together as she continues, speaking in a low, mellow voice. "Someone was watching over us that day, the driver and I... We ended up flipping over and sliding across, hitting a railing. A railing, which, saved our lives and was placed there about a week or two before the crash. The first thought that came to mind when I saw that my phone was obliterated was that I didn't have your number- for some reason I wasn't able to memorize yours and Andre ended up being too busy to ask. I didn't see my life flash before my eyes, it was more like my time with our group which consisted of memories mainly of you... I didn't realize it before but out of everyone, you seem to be the most memorable to me, even above Andre."

"I just don't know how to make of you Tori. There was one time I wanted to rip your head off, then I just didn't mind having you around and then, it flickered between having you at a distance then to having you right next to me."

"Jade..." she starts and I feel a lukewarm hand cup my right cheek, "I love talking to you but I think we've done enough of that." Tori just looks at me as I feel my mind go blank, looking very confused. "How about I just do and you react, got it? No more damn hints..." Vega mutters before pulling me in.

As soon as I feel her lips against mine, I feel pleasant shocks shoot through my body and I end up gripping her sides as she runs her hands in my hair. I pull her towards me as she does the same, and we end up meeting in the middle. My tongue slips in her mouth, just wondering over, and I hear her purr as hers met mine. My adrenaline starts pumping, sending fire to the gut buzz below my stomach (if that makes any sense).

Our lips break contact and I feel my lungs take in sharp breaths eagerly as Tori does the same. I guess we forgot to incorporate oxygen in the equation. "Do you went to go home with me?" I ask huskily, receiving a smile.

"I've been wanting that invitation for several years," she responds, pecking my lips soothingly. I smirk as we put on our seatbelts, safety first, and pull out of the parking lot. I don't remember the lights I passed, don't worry, it was done all legally, and the cars attempting to race. I just know that the pecks and kisses on my shoulder grow more impatient and needing, so I had to restrain myself from just flooring it. My heart says to, but my brain really put it's foot down; not literally because the heart would then win.

As my house came to view, I smirk mischievously. The wheels halts abruptly and I feel Tori kiss up my neck as I chuckle throatily before the seatbelts unfasten. The car doors swing open and slam close behind our steps towards the house. Once I fumble with the keys, arms wrap around my waist as lips connects with the crook of my neck. The door clicks open and I go through, slamming it close as I pin Vega against it, leaving the keys forgotten a few feet from us.

Her hands clutch my back as I kiss her hungrily, not caring if my cat is watching us as he sniffs the keys. Our feet stumble through the hall as we gradually made our way to the stairs, tongues dancing as we went. Eventually, I'm against my bedroom door, beanie falling off. Tori runs her hands at the end of my shirt before her hands graze the skin underneath. I shiver slightly as her cold hands continues to feel around my waist, smirking against my neck.

My hand clumsily finds something to grab hold of as she glazes over my pale skin, and I do, but I also leaned into it. We both screech as the door swings open, and I quickly seize the door frame, catching Vega as well. "Thank God for those reflexes," she murmurs.

"You're telling me," I chuckle as my teeth graze the side of her neck. I feel my jacket fall to the floor as I stumble backwards, collapsing on my bed. Vega turns her head to one side as she runs her hand through her hair. She smiles lustfully at me as she climbs onto the bed, straddling me. I grip Tori's sides as she plays with my hair a bit, and I smirk as a hand slips underneath her shirt. A small gasp comes out as I traced figure eights on her left side, and then I'm pushed down against my dark covers.

I watch as her hands take off her shirt ridiculously slowly, taking her sweet time as her eyes glinted at my gleeful ones. The shirt falls to the floor and from the slight moonlight pouring from my bedroom door, I smirk at the red laced bra she wore. My left arm props me up as our lips meet in the middle, hers grinning into mine as my right scratches lightly in between her shoulder blades. Within a second, I flip ourselves over, landing her head on the edge of the pillows as I bite my lip seductively.

Hands tease the end of my shirt as I kiss her neck until she couldn't take it any linger and just tore my shirt off. She eyes my black bra before capturing my lips with hers as she fumbles obnoxiously at the back of it. Grumbling lightly, I sit up, my legs folded next to her sides, and just stripped off the bra. Tori chuckles lightly as my chests falls free from the undergarment, which now lay abandoned with the jacket and shirts.

My grin mirrors hers as I move my hips slowly, running my left hand through my raven locks as the other skimmed over my stomach and un to one of my nipples. As it twists slightly, I laugh as I feel Tori squirm a bit out of hesitance. 'Do you want it or not Vega?" I purr, enticing her as she grinds against my hips.

"Guess I have nothing better to do," she murmurs back, sitting up and nibbling my neck. I groan softly, feeling as her teeth go over a sensitive spot while her hands plays with my chest. All I could do is undo her bra with my right while my left supports our weight. It drops on the side of the sheets once her arms obliged to my silent command, and I tilt my head curiously at her smaller boobs. For the first time, she looks slightly nervous, some red spreading over her cheeks.

A soft smile forms on my lips as I cup her cheek and peck her lips lovingly before moving down towards the now exposed skin. I take the time to make my way down before I began to suck on her nipples. I feel her grip grow harder as I continue, hitched breaths streaming out. As they grew harder from my tongue, I move on to the other one, until I hear a soft moan fill the empty room.

Her back meets the sheets and I kiss her a bit roughly, my hands playing with the rim of her pants. I feel as her skin erupts in goose bumps as I do so, and a snicker breaks out as she snaps, "Get the pants off or I'll just leave Jade."

"Alright, alright," I mutter, stripping her down to her underwear. "Better?"

"Better," she sighs before adding, "But I was referring to yours." My eyes widen as I am too stripped down to the black cloth covering what was now a wet center. "Now I'm really better," Tori slurs, hand gliding at the rims of them. I whimper as she glides just briefly over the cloth, and my hands dig into her sides as she does it again. Two, three, _four_ times she does this, and I feel my hips attempting to grind against it every damn time but she keeps egging me on.

"Tor-... _oh shit,"_ I curse under my breath as I felt a hand slip against the cloth and meets my clit.

"My God Jade, you're so wet..." she moans quietly herself as her hand moves slowly, letting my hips move with it. I shudder slightly before my lips met her own, and I feel myself squirm as she slowly teases my clit. As our lips lock, I moan in it, feeling her pace quicken and pressure multiply. My conscious is blank, only sex driving me now. I grip her sides, nails digging into them, and I heave another throaty moan as she slips a finger inside.

I could tell by the ease of it that her extremities on her right hand are now soaking wet, especially the one exploring my walls curiously. Heat pulses through and I growl slightly, shifting to rip the underwear off. Once gone off to the other side of the room, I attack her neck, sucking and nibbling as her hand goes back to work with even more lust. I breath in deeply as her finger glides over a certain spot. My hips rock with her rhythm as she pumps it in and out, gaining more speed each time. I fear that I may draw blood by how deep my nails are digging into her skin, and I manage to release some pressure, only to find myself biting her shoulder. Walls tighten around her now two fingers as the curl against my found favorite spot and her palm rubbing against my clit.

A stream of obsenities come out among moans, all muffled by her shoulder. All of a sudden, my body halts its movements, limbs seizing as I tremble while heat pulses through. Tori slows down as my walls loose their tension, and I ultimately collapse on top of her. A small grin forms as I feel a gentle hand caress my back as soft kisses are planted on my forehead. Once about a dozen kisses are felt, she becomes occupied with licking the juices off of her fingers while I listened to my pounding heart soften, matching the beat of hers.

As they get close to the same tempo, I lean over and kiss her gingerly, tasting myself with it. My hand cups her cheek, letting some of her locks fall over it as the seconds tick by, marked by the clock overhead. By a minute, our gentle, loving pecks become intense, hungry kisses that takes the air of our lungs.

I pull away, to Tori's displeasure, and begin to make my way down slowly, going over her chest and to her hips. Because of my impatience, her underwear joins mine immediately as I smirk at her dripping sex. A purr escapes my throat as I glide my fingers over it, earning a small groan. My eyes shift over to hers, dark and clouded with lust, and I smirk mischievously. Before leaning in, I lick my lips excitedly. As soon as I glide my tongue over her entrance, I'm hooked. I become entranced by the sweet taste; a taste which reminds me of so many different things yet is completely unique. Like it's its own flavor.

She shakes slightly under my tongue, and I grin slightly as I try to pin what I'm enjoying. Maybe honey, or grapefruit. Possible peach or... I can't fucking describe it. It tastes good, alright, give me a break.

I begin to focus more hard nub, which seems to draw out the most intense of noises. As she begins to curse with my name, I feel my right hand, not occupied with gripping her hip, travel towards my own center. I moan softly as I feel my fingers rub against my clit. My tongue works at Tori's clit while my ears listen to the words that seem to chuck oil in the fire that is burning against my fingers. And then, words become strained and I whimper slightly as I hear her moan out one final 'Fuck, Jade' before tremors shoot through her body.

Similar, smaller ones, crash through my mind, ears ringing with my thumping heart as I lap up the warm juices that just came all over my tongue. Once I felt satisfied, I clambered back over to Tori who had her tongue sticking out as she wore the most stupidest of grins I've ever seen. I kiss her neck and whisper huskily, "You like that?"

"Yeah, nothing screams the best sex like a black cat staring at me while I orgasm."

"What?" I snap, rolling my eyes as I suddenly hear loud purring to our side. My eyes close and I shift my head over to the motor running before they slid open again. Salem was just there, watching us... Kneading the blanket while he wore something like a gleeful look on his face. "Are you kidding me cat. What are you trying to do?"

"I think he wants to join..." Tori chuckled, wrapping her arms around my waist.

"How long as he been there for?"

"Uh... I dunno. I didn't see him when you came but, then again, it is a bit dark in here."

"Oh God, my cat watched me eat pussy..."

"You monster," she snickers, pecking me on the cheek before my hand guided her to my lips.

"Want to sleep? I kind of don't want to have my cat watch anymore..."

"Yeah, okay." The blankets are pulled over to our waists. Tori lays on my shoulder, her hand on my stomach, and she stares at the ceiling, pondering. "I did not expect that to happen..."

"Oh well. It did and I loved it," I mutter.

"Me too," she smiles before kissing under my chin. "Good night, or morning..."

My head rolls over momentarily, to see '12:21' staring at me. "Good morning then. Sweets."

"Sweets?"

"What? You taste sweet."

"Oh God, if anyone asks what that nickname means Jade..."

"I'll just say that I like the taste of Tori." I smirk softly as I hear her sigh, and roll over so her back leaned against me, her head still laying on my arm.

"Good morning Jade."

"Good morning Tori," I murmur in her ear as I wrap my right around her waist, pressing my chest and legs against hers. We both slipped into a pleasant unconsciousness quickly.

-o0o-

I frown slightly as my eyes blink open, attention drawing towards the giggling beside me. Shifting slightly, my left hand cleans some of the drool, surprisingly, from my mouth. Besides the half-Latina's small laughs, I hear something like slurping. My eyes glare as I turn over, and it hardens as I watch my cat groom my... lover's? Girlfriend's? (I'll figure it out later) breasts. "Those are mine and mine alone you damn asshole. Continue that and I'll throw you out to the curb I found you at."

An orange eye stares at me, humored, as a rough tongue licks one more time before he climbed over and licked the tip of my nose. Deciding that he was done for now, Salem steps across Tori's stomach, earning more small giggles, before hopping down and grooming himself on the floor, leg immediately up as his head disappears behind his arched back.

Shaking her head slightly, Vega pulls me into a deep kiss before murmuring, "Kind of feel like a shower..."

"Why? Did I not do a good job cleaning yesterday?"

"You did perfect but I don't want your cat butting in again." I nod silently and stepped out of bed, stretching my short torso as I felt caramel forearms slide over my stomach. My lips pull into a grin as I felt her toned abs sway with my back before I guided her into the bathroom by the wrist. As the water thudded against the tub floor, Tori sat on the counter while I kissed her neck, gingerly going over the bite marks along her shoulders. "God I really did mark you didn't I?" I mutter apologetically, analyzing the long scratch, claw and bite marks all about her torso, most of which I don't remember doing.

"Eh, doesn't seem as bad as soon as you take a look at your neck," she snickers quietly as my eyes flicker over to the mirror. A deep, long purple oval stretches across right under my left ear. A small smirk appears in my reflection before I plant a deep, somewhat lustful, somewhat loving kiss on her lips. I step back and stride over to the curtains, gazing back at the transfixed Vega before I'm in the shower.

Hot water flows down my back and I smile as a soft kiss tingles my left shoulder. She turns me around and then pins me gently to the wall, lips locking with mine intensely. Hands become entangled in my soaked hair, and I grip her waist with a soft of gentleness. She purrs against my lips as I grind my leg slightly in between hers, feeling wet soft skin gliding against mine.

My lips trail off, traveling to her right ear, nibbling on it a bit before giving her a few pecks underneath it. I begin to choose a spot to suck on when I jerk as she suddenly flinches. "Oh _fuck_ , SALEM!" she bellows as her body presses against mine.

I hold her close, watching as my cat stares at us creepily, once again; black fur dripping with the hot water. "Oh yeah, I forgot to mention... He like's to hop in the shower with me too."

"God how are we going to do what ever we want with this cat around... Likes the shower and can open doors... _Shit_."

"We can just ignore him if you'd like," I murmur in her ear as she turns around, back against my hardened nipples.

"I guess," she mutters, bending down to pick up a bar of soap.

"Hey, it really does look like a fish..." I thumb over a birthmark.

"I never did lie about that," she chuckles softly, rubbing the soap on her arms. "Okay, yeah no... I can't have that cat looking at me like that. He's a bit creepy," Tori shakes her head as she picks up the black cat by the armpits. I admire at the pathetic stature of the cat, which continued to purr, staring at Tori with wide eyes.

"I think he likes you," I laugh as he is plopped out of the shower.

"More like has a obsession," she murmurs against my mouth. I can truthfully say that it was a nice cleaning. We didn't have sex, no, but hands did certainly wonder as they cleaned the other. Once done, I pulled on a robe and some clean underwear, Tori wearing another one with some underwear that she left from one of her other visits.

Some hours later, we're on the couch, watching some shows. I hear my phone buzz against the coffee table, though I became more interested with Tori's lips against mine, and the loose robe barely hiding her chest. As they turned into pecks, the show was almost over and another one was sought after.

About thirty minutes later, we become bored again and Vega's wondering hands slip around my waist as mine become somewhat tangled in her hair. Tongues dance together happily, some moans and chirps (don't ask) coming out. A knock loudly bangs against the door three times ad I half mindedly slurred, "It's open."

My head goes back and I let out a quiet, throaty moan as Tori kisses the crook of my neck. As I blink towards the closing door, confused, my eyes widen and I grasp my girlfriend closer to me as I stuttered, "...Hey Mr. Wither. What are you doing here?"

"Uh... Yeah. Um, I'm here to pick up the reservation papers that you filed last night," he mutters, upside down as my hair drapes over the side of the couch. From what I could tell, he was completely shocked, and I wonder why. "So, what the hell are you two doing?"

"I, er, I forgot about the reservations..." I mumble as Tori shifts uncomfortably.

"Obviously," he snickers, "I'll be back in a few hours to pick them up."

"Alright... You do that and, um... Tori? Mind helping me with them?"

"No problem," she answers. "Hi Mr. Wither."

"Hi Miss Vega, Miss West... See you two later." And with that, the front door closes and both of us chuckle a bit.

"Oh God, that was embarrassing."

"At least we didn't have to tell him," I pointed out.

"Jade, we're half naked, on the couch and making out."

"At least we didn't have to tell him," I shrug, earning rolled eyes and another kiss that led to eventual screams of pleasure. Once we were done with that round, reservations were made and then we headed back to my bedroom, well I guess our bedroom whenever she comes over, and 'rested'. 'Rested' until we past out... I look up at the ceiling as Tori grips my shoulder sleepily, and I'll say my limbs are a bit sore.


	8. Chapter 8

I enjoy the feeling of my lungs filling with the brisk cold air as I lean against my car. The warm coffee feels scalding hot inside my stomach, and I quietly smile to myself, taking another sip. The breeze shifted through my hair as I felt my arms prickle slightly under the light coat I wore. Eyes open and squint at the grey clouds, which half-blinds me, before turning to steps beside me. For a short moment, I'm slightly disappointed that it's only Mr. Wither, though I'll give him a chance. I guess.

"Hey Miss Vega, you doing well?" he mumbles, adjusting a new tie of his.

"Yeah, you?"

"Just fine, until that caller called the damn house again..." the man shakes his head, "I'm telling you, they are obsessed with you, really."

"Oh yeah, just what I need on a Monday morning," I sigh bitterly. "So we still have that officer?"

"Two of them, yeah. Anyway, it seems you had a pretty good weekend." I glare momentarily at his smirk before he muses, "I won't tell anyone, if that's what you're wondering."

"Good," I mumble.

"Yeah, I really won't want that either... A few months ago someone pretty much attacked our image as a couple before we even we one." I jerk violently, spilling some coffee as I turn around to glare at my new girlfriend.

"VEGA, DO THAT AGAIN AND I SWEAR Y-" I shout before I feel lips on my own. Immediately I quiet down and she pulls away, giving me a raised eyebrow.

"Good morning to you too?"

"Uh... yeah, what you said," I mutter, a bit sheepishly once I saw people start to look our way. Mr. Wither chatted with us for a few minutes before leaving to someone else's calls for help with props. "So," I turn to Tori, "What do you want to do this weekend?"

"Is this weekend the party for the scenes or the next?"

"I think... hold on," I frown slightly, forgetting the plans that _we_ made for the reservations over the eventful weekend. Luckily, I put all of my important business plans on my phone so it certainly makes it easy. "Yeah, it's this weekend."

"Mind if I bring Trina?" she asks, her eyes widening slightly at the thought.

"Uh... that sounded _really_ convincing."

"Well- gah, she hasn't seen the movie stuff at all and I figured for her birthweek I could bring her over just to help... And I guess I could reintroduce her to you except, you know."

"Right, yeah... I guess it's fine. God it's kind of amazing that we're nearly done filming this damn movie, I mean it's been five, six months? Still have to put it all together and all of the other stuff but, yeah." We both smile at each other, feeling a sense of accomplishment. It seriously has felt like only a few weeks and yet, it has been anything but.

"You think Trina will accept it?" I turn my head slightly as I wrap my arms around her waist as hers go around my neck.

"Eh, she's accept it but still be pissed about it," her shoulders shrug. It made sense, since it's Trina who we're talking about. She won't be all to pleased that her baby sister was dating a person who tried to make high school a living hell. Luckily I gave up on that the last day (don't ask how strangely nice I was). I lean in and capture her lips in mine, feeling my heart flutter as she responds, deepening it.

After a few more, we pull away and Vega chuckles, retorting, "We are doing such a good job keeping this low profile..."

"I know, the best job," I grin, pecking her lips before going back to my coffee, which had been placed on the hood of my car. My lips part as I began to say something before I hear a loud yell off in the distance. Quickly, both of us dart off and join a crowd surrounding a crazed man smiling sadistically at everyone. His head turns to me and the wicked smile presenting unhealthy teeth sent tremors down my spine.

"I've been calling you but you haven't answered," he somewhat whines before jogging towards me. My steps stumble back and go around a tree as he marches over, though they halt one I back into another tree. Tori, meanwhile, grips my hand before leaping a few steps, coming closer to the man.

I blink and the man's head is hitting the tree before falling to the ground, unconscious. The half-Latina just looks down and then her head turns back, gazing at me with pure shock and embarrassment. "Uh, did you see all of that?"

"No... Why?"

"Uh, I may or may not have punched his head into a tree..."

" _What_?" I gawk, stepping over to the two.

"It would have been worse if I had my guns with me."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa... You have guns?"

"Yeah, my dad is a cop, remember?"

"Speaking of the damn cops, where the hell are they at?" I snap, "That was their one job, to keep this nut-job away from here." My brows furrow as I watch Tori pick up his phone curiously and examine it. Her eyes widen before letting out a short small whimper.

" _Fucking ass_ just made a tweet..."

"What?" I growl confused before the screen is illuminating against my eyes. As the caption, it read 'At the set of the new horror film, and found this.' Below it was a picture of Tori and I locking lips. "Fuck... We are really good at keeping a low profile."

"Yeah... Oh no..." she mumbles, shrinking down against the tree.

"What?"

"My mom," she explains in a small voice, holding out her phone with a new text from her mother. While the news hadn't spread all that quickly, the mere timing is just uncanny.

**Mom: So have you found yourself a nice, handsome guy? I would love to set you up on a date.**

-o0o-

"Tori... hey, it'll be fine... It'll be just fine," I sooth softly. The last scene was just shot and it went really well. Everyone here knew about our little kiss and didn't mind as we had grown as a small family. That, and I guess it wasn't all that surprising to be honest...

"But-but she just kicked me out of the house Jade!" she snaps anxiously, "And I have to go over there and pick up my things."

"How much do you have?" I murmur, sitting myself down right next to her, ignoring the several 'bullet holes'.

"Not much actually, well. Not much that I actually need, 'bout a few suitcases."

"Alright, so we go to my place then and make it ours?" I ask. Now yes, it's only been a few days since we started actually dating, and we haven't really had one but... she just got kicked out of her house so- _Damn Jade, talk about lesbian stereotypes_ , I think to myself.

"Yeah... And I also agree with that too."

"Agree with what?"

"The lesbian stereotypes," her eyebrow raises slightly at my bemused expression, her lips forming a small grin.

"Did I say that out loud?"

"Uh, yeah Jade. You did, I can't read your mind."

"I really don't think you'd want to," I chuckle slightly, feeling her head resting on my shoulder.

"Yeah, I can't say I would want to."

"Wha-" I smirk before forming a false offended gaze, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"My God Jade, you are not Cat. Quit-that-right-now!" she stammers in between playful punches.

"Shit Vega! I-was- _joking_!" I shrilly, slapping her hands away. I internally grin as I watch her smile momentarily before it fell once again.

"You think she'll forgive me?"

"Forgive you? For what? Fucking girls or fucking me? To be frankly honest," I transition from my efforts to lighten the mood, "It should be more because I was the one who did all that stuff to you before." My eyes soften as I watch her head droop a bit more in my shoulder and I sigh pitifully, "Oh come on Tori, we'll go there right now to get it out of the way if you want to and then, I don't know, go to a nice restaurant? How 'bout that?"

"Alright, I suppose so..."

"Good. Because I'm hungry anyway," I mutter, standing up alongside Tori who bolts towards my car. As I slip in the car, her seatbelt is already buckled and I turn my keys, the sound of the engine purring flooding the nervous taps.

-o0o-

My fingers tap anxiously as Tori grabbed her things. It's been about five minutes and, to be frankly honest, irrational thoughts continued to thump against my skull. What if her mother would find her and yell at her, or throw a chair or even the piano. What if her mother threw the table?

Yeah, seriously, these were the thoughts going through my mind. My head shakes slightly as I give a slight yawn, really for no particular reason. As my dashboard switched it's numbers, I was already at the Vega's house door, walking quietly inside. Gazing around, I wonder up the stairs and find Tori putting a small white dog in a bag. "Mind putting him in the car while I get the rest of these suitcases?"

"Okay," I nod, taking her-wait- diffidently a guy, to my car, placing him right in front of the ac. "Huh, hi... You must be Berry, I'm Jade and, er, you'll have a nice friend at my house." I watch the dog as he stares back at me; from that expression, he did get what I was saying but not to the level of Salem. Tori did say this dog was kind of stupid after all, oh well.

My steps almost race back to the house and into the half-Latina's room. Inside, I see two good-sized suitcases and then a long, narrow black box with another shorter one. "What are those?" I murmur, pointing to the black boxes.

"My rifle and pistol... My dad kind of went crazy at the gun store, instead of a car I got those." I smile slightly at her shrug before taking one of the suitcases down the stairs and into my car. After several minutes of finding a way to actually fit the damn thing in there, I jog back to the house, frowning slightly at the hold up. As my pace stops, I immediately see the problem.

While Vega stands, suitcase and boxes behind her feet as she held a large stuffed bear, her mom walked into the kitchen from the garage. "What did you do to my daughter?" she snaps, head turning over to me.

"I-I didn't, why does it- Tori, just go and put the stuff in the car, I'll be there." Teary-eyed, she just nods and rushes over leaving the big, brown fluffy teddy bear by the couch. As I bend down and pick it up, my blood started to boil and I couldn't take it anymore. "Mrs. Vega? What's your situation like?"

"Well, lets see... My daughter is being kicked out because she's with a witch, my husband's gone because he didn't know what was good for him an-"

"Okay, that's enough," I growl harshly, "You know what? If you really think I'm a witch, then have you ever thought how I became one?'

"Would I love to here that-"

"I don't fucking care if you want to or not, you're going to either way." My breathing slows momentarily to gain back some of my posture, "Look, my parents are divorced and both are raging alcoholics. If you truly love your daughter, even if your relationship with your husband isn't your fault, you would be by her side, by both of your daughter's side," I added, almost forgetting Trina, "Instead of tossing her out to the curb. Now I don't really think that she'll come back because she is an adult but, think about that. Good day to you."

I grin slightly to myself as I slam the door, imagining the bewildered expression on her face. Climbing into the car, the grin grows as I place the bear in the back seats and hear Tori speak with her dog, though cutting off once I got in.

"What were you doing?" she mumbles, cocking her head to the side.

"It'll be fine, just giving your mother a piece of my mind," I grin, giving Tori a deep kiss. We stop only when my phone vibrates in my pocket, which I couldn't have cared any less although I wanted the dog to shut up and quit barking at it. "Hello?"

"You fucking bitch, how could you go to Tori for-"

"Fuck you to Beck, and bye..." I hang up, still hearing the slurred voice in my head as I kissed Tori. Feeling her hand cup my cheek, I knew it would be fine, for now at least. The sun was setting behind us, there was a dog that was kind of annoying, and many bags behind us. For now, I'll take it as it is, because the lightness of my heart when I see her smile means a lot to me.


	9. Chapter 9

Some chuckles rise as the white dog bolts towards the unimpressed cat stalking nearby. Setting her luggage down, Tori ran her hand through her hair, muttering, "Berry, come on... Stop licking his face, Berry..." Her eyes roll as she strode over and separated the excited white ball of fluff from Salem, who gazes at me and just glares a heartfelt _'really'?_

"Yeah, um Salem, they're staying with us now," I chuckle quietly as the black cat darts down the hall, a hyper white dog following. Turning around, I realize that Vega wasn't behind me and is sitting on the couch, hands in her hair and elbows against her legs. Striding quietly, I make my way over and sit down next to her, wrapping an arm as she leans against me.

"Thank you for doing this," she murmurs.

"No problem," I nod before adding, "So you want to watch a movie at a nice movie theatre or just the nice dinner?"

"Any good movies out?"

"Maybe this one western one... I mean there's this one romantic garbage one so it might be better than that. It's a bit romantic to but it has some gore in it so, you in?"

"Sure, your description is absolutely wonderful and makes me want to watch, what now?"

"I don't remember the title."

"Yeah," she smiles gently, "I'll do it. Sounds interesting." Tori picks her head up and looks into my eyes with heavy ones, and I know that she is reliving her mother's reaction. I plant a long kiss which she deepens, cupping my right cheek, before pulling back and wrapping my arms around her in a nice, big hug. As our arms began to loosen, my gaze switches and hardens at the two sets of eyes staring gleefully at us.

"Tori, what the hell is Berry anyway?" I squint at the wagging tail a foot from me while Salem sits comfortably next to it.

"I really don't know, some sort of mutt. Some days he looks like a dachshund and other days a weird, misshaped beagle."

"And what about the white, long hair?"

"That's what trips me up because it reminds me of a miniature poodle."

"Is he yippy?"

"Sometimes," she scratches her head, "Why?"

"I just want to test something out," I draw out, pushing the slightly giggling half-Latina down on the couch, gripping her waist and locking lips. For a short while, nothing really happens and I just feel as a soft fire dwindles just underneath my gut. That is, until I feel a sudden, possesive glare next to me and a rush of barks ringing in my ears; I had forgotten about the damn dog. "God Tori, why in my ear you piece of-"

" _Jade_ ," she smirks warningly.

"Shit..." I finish quietly and briefly before explaining, "What? He screamed in my ear because I was having fun with you."

"Want to go to the movies? you know, before we lose track of time?"

"Oh yeah! Let's change though, the place I looked at is fancy-ish."

"Alright, I'll bring my stuff down."

"And I'll help," I mumble, winking as I brush past Berry and make my way downstairs, suitcase and stuffed bear in my arms.

-o0o-

My foot taps somewhat anxiously against the hardwood floors next to the kitchen. "You enjoyed pissing out in the backyard Berry-bitch?" I ask the small dog, who gave a short simple yelp. I think he likes my nickname for him. I glare at my sleeve momentarily, brushing off the small string of cotton. Tonight I went with my leather jacket, which I had grown quite fond of over the years, a plain black shirt with, surprise, surprise: black pants.

Finally, the sound of a distant door closing whisks my attention from 'Temple Run' (I swear the only reason why there are apps on the phone was so that Steve Jobs could wait while his date got ready) and smile as Tori comes out with a nice shirt and jeans with a small tan jacket.

"Okay, let's go," I rush, pulling open the front door as I snatch my keys from the counter, "Bye Salem, bye Berry-Bitch."

"Berry-bitch?" the Vega smirks, eyebrow raised.

"What? Catchy name ein't it?"

"Ain't it?"

"That's what I said..."

"Okay, we'll say that," she prods jokingly. "Yeah, it is a catchy name, but too catchy, I don't want to explain to the vet why he answers only to Berry-bitch if I start calling him that."

"Oh please do," I mutter as we slip into the car seats. As we drove off, I grin slightly as Vega tells me the most retarded of stories that Berry starred in. After they were replenished, I gave some stories of Salem before having to cut my last few short once the wheels halts into the parking space. As we get into the theatre, I begin to wonder about the constant stares following us and tried to just shrug it off, knowing full well why they were so critical.

Nevertheless, we enjoyed our time there, watching the movie which wasn't all that bad. It had some stuff in there for Tori and for myself, which is always good. The food was fine and I kept adjusting the seat, just to get under Tori's skin with the noise. "Keep doing that and I swear Jade..."

"You swear what?" I murmur as I lean back comfortably.

"I won't say with you, you'll just find a way to get out of it."

"Yeah, that's a pretty accurate description," I smirk as the movie played. Once the film was done, however, I hesitantly got up and followed Vega back to the car and I drove us home, feeling rather pleased with myself.

-o0o-

Shrugging off the last article of clothing before I dove under the covers, well, with underwear, I embrace the soft, warm fabric as I nestle into the pillow. For the past few days since the date, the movie was setting up the last few pieces before completion. That said, not a whole lot was to be done actually, just putting the pieces together.

I grin slightly as I feel bare, caramel skin of an upper torso against my back as an arm drapes over my waist. "Can I join the half-naked sleep over?"

"Why not, was just about to throw a pity party over here," I smirk as my body twists around to give Tori a soft, loving kiss.

"Well that's good. Now you hold me since you moved," she mumbles as her back now is against my chest. Shrugging mentally, I wrap my arm around her stomach, smiling as we both fell into a nice sleep. That is, until a thought startled me.

"Oh shit, Trina's going to be in my life tomorrow..."

"Yes Jade, it's her birthweek so the least you can do is let her join tomorrow."

" _Fine,_ only because you're her sister," I snap.

"Right. Now goodnight, for real this time."

"Alright, alright..." I yawn, feeling my eyes become heavy. Some hundred ticks of the clock above go by before I feel rustling against me and a sudden, quiet voice.

"Jade?"

"Hmm?" I answer, not bothering to open my mouth.

"Do you think she'll accept it?"

"Never gave me a reason that she wouldn't," I put simply. "Don't worry now, if she doesn't take it well, and it wouldn't be because you like girls, then I'm here and so is Salem and Berry-bitch," I smirk slightly as I heard a collar jingle and shuffling from a few feet away. "And then there's Charles, and Mr. Wither."

"Which reminds me, what about the picture? Of us." I sigh deeply, knowing full well how much Tori internalized the back-lash from the picture of us since the day she moved here. It really wasn't anybody's fault except for the man who took the picture, diving into our business. Many comments raged about how she only got the role because I was the director and she slept with me. 'Course, none of it was true and some comments did try to help, saying it was our personal lives not the movie's. Though it was those comments that were rare on the many sites.

"I don't know, we can just ignore it and hope that it doesn't affect the movie's success too much. I'd really hate to see that happen, knowing all of the others. But hey, it'll be fine. Just a hurdle is all..." I whisper in Tori's ear, my grip becoming a bit tighter.

"Thanks Jade," she smiles, quickly falling asleep. Soon I do the same, and find myself dreaming of nothing but pure, dark bliss.

-o0o-

My eyes blink open as I feel shifting against my back, and gaze lazily at the neon numbers beside my bed although I don't register what they say. Sitting up, I stretch my arms and clamber my way to the bathroom, cocking my head in front to the mirror. After letting out a big yawn, I gaze back at the mirror, instead at Tori who frowns as her eyes open before she turns and her long caramel back sends some warmth in my system.

As I brush my teeth, rather slowly, I eye her as she stretches herself out of bed and begins to search through her suitcase for a shirt. Deciding that wasn't going to happen, with my gut beginning to buzz, I rinse my mouth out with water and stride over. As my steps pad their way over, she stops for a second before feeling my arms wrap around her waist and my lips against the crook of her neck. "Got that rush too?" she murmurs thickly as I nod silently.

Tori smirks as she twists around in my grasp, cupping my cheek as our lips lock hungrily. I feel her hands push my chest as we stumble back on the warm bed. Gasping slightly as I feel her lukewarm hands run along my sides, our lips smirk as tongues met each other, dancing. Letting out a deep chuckle, her teeth begin to skip the side of my neck until she begins to suckle at my pulse point, driving me in a comfortable craze.

However, as I felt goose bumps trail after teeth, they stop at my collarbone, letting out a deep breath as a small bark erupts behind us. Tori's head raises and I grin slightly at her impatient glare that was then shot towards Berry, who only hung his tongue in giddy happiness. Sliding off of me, she mutters under her breath something like, "At least Salem was quiet," before her hand was on the door handle. "Berry," she smiles in a low voice, "Get the fuck out."

Obediently, he wags his little ass out of the room, only to sit right at the door step. "You too cat," she nods towards Salem, who had just strode in. He only gazes up at Tori lazily before going back out with a near silent 'meow' of complaint. Once the door is slammed shut, she mutters, "And don't try to open it."

As excited footsteps follow after Salem's, she is back on top of me, kissing harshly. We indulge ourselves before I flip her over, wanting her _now_. As my knee grinds in between her legs, she lets out a low moan as I kiss her neck, nipples rubbing against hers.

She arches back, eyes suddenly fixed on the alarm clock, frowning slightly. I only mentally shrug once she flips back over, deciding to kiss along her shoulder. As she mutters, "Uh... Jade?" I'm suckling quietly just below her ribs on the right side.

"Hmm?"

"What time is the party- _shit._ " I smirk happily as I feel my hips grind against her back leg, thus my leg grinding in between hers.

"Um... 5:30, I think..."

"Well, it's 3:49." I curse mentally, seeing where this was going although continued anyway.

"So, we make this a quickie?"

"Jade, as much as I'd love to, we'll be late if we do."

"Wha- why?"

"Well, we planned it nearly an hour away from here, it's good to be early to the party you're hosting and right now, we're half naked, in bed and haven't even had a meal yet."

"Which reminds me, why isn't Salem hungry?"

"I fed him earlier when you told him to 'fuck off', or my dog-whatever, I fed them both."

"...Thank you..." I plant a soft kiss on her shoulder before sliding off of her. I grin slightly to myself one I heard a soft grumble as I make my way to the shower. 'Course, before I make my way through the curtain as water hits the floor, I feel arms around my waist and soft kisses on my shoulder. A chuckle arises as we stumble inside, kisses hotter than the water as we actually cleaned ourselves. Surprisingly.

"So... sex later?"

"Yes Jade," Tori chuckles quietly, "Later."

"When?"

"What does 'later' mean to you? How the hell would I know?" My eyes roll at her questions and our lips lock once more before the many minutes pass of changing and some 'readjustments', possibly on my end.

-o0o-

My eyes glare at the blaring music streaming out of the stereo and my thoughts hiss, hammering against my skull as I had nobody to blame for this music other than myself. Really, I pretty much hired everybody here, so I'd have to stand in the corner, stalking as I picture multiple ways to strangle the DJ. "Would you like that pretty, long microphone chord around your neck, hmm? I certainly would," I subconsciously mutter darkly under my breath.

"My God, please don't actually hurt the man," I hear a soft, slightly unsurprised voice behind me. Tori stands in her long red gown with the teasing slit along the side, giving _me_ a view of her legs. Nobody else, just me.

"Why is she here again?" My eyes shift over to Trina, who is wearing some new high heels, standing just barely taller than me.

"She's the _director_ and the _host, Trina_... So play nice otherwise this birthweek present is a sham."

"Still not an item."

"Uh, huh... Guess what I forgot to take out of the car."

"What?" her eyes travel questioning to Tori's. I smirk slightly as I sip some of my coke, enjoying the light bickering.

"Oh nothing... just my pistol."

"Which one?"

"Which one? I only have one!"

"Oh..." the older sister mumbles, eyes widening slightly, "Uh, really like the present Tori... the greatest."

"Yeah, and you can also come to the premiere as well..." Tori's voice trails off, remembering my bitter attitude the few nights prior as we talked it over.

"Really? Can we have a double date then? It's been a long time," she whines slightly, sounding pleased.

"...okay? You have yours?"

"No, we'll have to find yours too," she nods to herself, not noticing my raised eyebrow and the youngest Vega's suddenly nervous stance.

I shift to my left leg, cocking my head slightly as I ask, "Have you been online at all over the past week?"

"No, it's been down at my place."

"Why?"

"I had to pay the water bill instead, believe it or not but I need water over wifi to keep my naturally beautiful look." My eyes shift over to Tori's, and I shrug slightly as I nod towards the sister, _Go ahead._

"Trina, I already have someone in mind..."

"Really, that quickly? Wow, it's only been a few seconds-" Rolling her eyes, the younger half-Latina steps towards me, wrapping her arm around mine and her other hand over my stomach. "Oh, okay... With her?"

"No, I'm just her twin and am just here to cover- _yes it's me, obviously_ ," I snap impatiently, feeling my girlfriend's grasp grow tighter.

"Wait, have you two had-"

"Yes and why is that the second thing you ask?" Tori shakes her head slightly, "And Jade was the one I was telling you about before!"

"Really? Didn't mention any names."

"Uh, yeah-because she was over at our house making me do stupid shit because of Sikowitz' bet without saying 'no.'"

"That was a fun night," I chuckle to myself.

"Jade?" Trina suddenly asks, analyzing the two of us with a somewhat stern expression on her face.

"Wut?" I mumble as my lips allow coke to fill my mouth.

"Did-did they get _bigger_?" she exasperated pointedly at my chest. I look down and smirk slightly at my boobs.

"Maybe a little..." After few more relaxed minutes pass between us, it was clear Trina was fine with it, although did hold some questions regarding me. Can't say I'm surprised. By the end of the conversation, however, she became slightly distracted. Frowning slightly, I turn to follow her gaze and find Charles at the bar, drinking a water. "You looking at Charles?"

"Yeah, isn't he hot?" she nods enthusiastically.

"Right... Just go talk to him then," Tori rolls her eyes as Trina shot up from her slackened state and bolted somewhat nervously towards the bar. We watch as she halts, straightens her dress and orders a small drink, right next to Charles who just looks at her with a bemused expression.

"Wonder how that's going to turn out," I mutter quietly.

"Yeah... I think it would be good if she actually would have one stable relationship though, I can't deal with her midnight phone calls every-damn-time." Our gaze continues to just stare at the two, surprised when we see Charles laugh slightly and Trina cockily smile. "Huh, he may actually like her..."

Both of us just shrug before she drags me to the dance floor, where I stand and admire her skills before my foot taps to the beat as well. Within a few minutes, I can't help but move with her, happily picturing the DJ drowning in a vat full of hungry sharks dressed as a seal. Here's a hint; he dies before his lungs are completely filled with water.

-o0o-

By nine I start to feel the buzz in my lower gut heighten, and I pull Tori away from the table through a few doors until we stop at a dark hall. Checking absentmindedly for cameras, I push Tori firmly against the wall, feeling as hands wrap around my neck and pull my lips against hers. She moans softly into it, allowing my tongue to snake it's way into her mouth, meeting hers in a quiet battle.

After a few wet kisses, I feel lips against my jugular as I mutter throatily, "Want to leave now, go home?"

"And what will you do then?" she asks, her voice gritty and her eyes dark, rich with excitement.

"Well, I'll finish what we started earlier and make you scream my name until you go hoarse," I purr in her ear, earning an approved giggle. Our lips smack together a few more times before we go back into the main room, searching for the exit towards our car. Fingers laced together, we make our way through the crowd and out the door, feeling two pairs of eyes following us.

Our steps stride quietly through the sidewalk, since I parked at another parking lot than the hotel's, and my ears suddenly pick up another pair or footsteps. Feeling anxious, I halt before I hear the footsteps continue. Turning around quickly, I see a flash of black before I find myself gazing at the ground, wincing at the sting on my left cheek. From the impact I slackened my grip on Tori's hand, and when I swipe to find it again, I hear a high cry instead. My head picks up, and I nearly spit fire as I watched my ex shove my girlfriend against the hotel's wall.

In one swift motion, I yank him off of her with a sudden burst of energy as adrenaline rushed through my veins, and cool metal points at him threateningly. "What the fuck was that Oliver?" I hiss with pure venom.

"Why is she better, huh? Wasn't I the one who helped you all through high school, or dos that mean nothing?"

"Yeah, sure help you were as Tori here helped me with multiple plays, helped me get back with you on multiple occasions... You even tried to _kiss_ herm" I snap back, watching as Beck studied my protective hand over Tori and scissors a half a foot from his chest. Something in his eyes melts away and I almost give a small smile once I see the puppy brown eyes that he wore as we went to Hollywood Arts. "Beck," I mutter softly with a cool edge, "Just go home."

"Okay," he nods a bit, backing away slowly, "I-I'm sorry... I've been a real dick lately." With that, he turns and jogs away, off to the left in the distance.

I step away from Tori only to turn around and grip her arms gingerly, "Did he hurt you?" I ask, slightly worried.

"No," she murmurs quietly, cupping my left cheek, "But he hurt you didn't he?" I nod silently as she asks, "You think he'll finally get help?"

"If he finally got his head out of his ass, maybe," I whisper. She smiles and plants a soft, sweet kiss on my lips and I enjoy it for what it was before guiding her the rest of the yards to my car. As we slip in, I gaze over at her side and see dark, lustful eyes gleaming back at me. Eagerly, I lock lips with hers, feeling some of the pent up energy flow through.

"How about you get the car started..."

"Alright sweets," I murmur enthusiastically, grinning as the engine purred with a twist of a key. This was going to be a fun night for _me_. And it was for nobody else, just me.


	10. Chapter 10

My hand scratches the top of my head as I stretch my arms out, yawning. A gleeful grin spreads across my face as I murmur quietly, "What a wonderful night..." I feel around beside me, only to have cool cloth against my fingers. Pushing myself out of bed, I grab a robe from the side (it was not on the floor, -100%) and shrug it over my shoulders. Lounging my the door frame was Salem, obviously already fed, hence him licking his chops eagerly. "Hey there cat, Tori upstairs?"

His watchful eyes glimmer at me before he stalks upstairs, tail held high. It's been a busy few weeks since the party, a lot of editing. At least I wasn't really doing any of it, just supervising. Tori, meanwhile, had it easy since she only had to sing in a record studio which wouldn't be until another few months since her new album had just come out only, what, three months ago? Four? Something like that anyway.

I rub across my collarbone and tie the robe around my, otherwise, bare skin as I make my way to the kitchen. A small smile spreads onto my lips as I see Salem in between her legs, "Morning Jade, want French toast?"

"Sure," I mutter, wrapping my arms around her waist and my nose nuzzling at the crook of her neck. This was my favorite position because I'm always able to feel her warmth and it made it easier to whisper softly in her ear.

"Well, to problems with that... One, we don't have any bread or eggs. Two, I don't know how to cook 'em."

"Wow, you are such a great chef," I mumble.

"Thanks Jade, means a lot."

"You know that was sarcasm right?"

"I know, but it means a lot from you because it's the closest thing to a compliment you give," Tori murmurs softly.

"Oh really?" I smirk, my hands snaking to her chest and lower stomach, stopping to trace irregular shapes on each. She shudders slightly from my cold hands, "Well you were great last night."

"Jade, you still stressed?"

"Yeah," I nod quietly, feeling her turn as my hands retreat gradually.

"Well," the half-Latina smiles, "How about we take the day off together?" I nod happily as her lips capture mine, hands gripping my waist as we stumble until my back is against the counter top. "But lets start with breakfast and then go to this festival I saw on the newspaper."

"You read the newspaper?"

"Yeah, the ones that are left on the driveway."

"I forgot those were there..."

"Uh huh, right," she grins, stepping backwards and striding back downstairs. Shaking my head slightly, I brew myself a coffee and just lean against the counter top, looking out at the windows which overlook multiple neighborhoods and trees. A sigh comes out as I reach over and two sugars are plopped in before a sip is then taken. The liquid burns the roof of my mouth, so much that I end up gasping slightly.

After about a minute or so, I drain the whole mug and waltz downstairs, happily entering our bedroom as Tori changed. Before her shirt is shrugged on lazily, my grin mirrors hers a bit and I turn around to the shower. As the hot water streams across my skin, I smirk slightly, for no reason at all. _God Vega, she makes me such a sap..._ I think to myself, glaring at the shampoo bottle before murmuring, "That's better."

-o0o-

" _Jade_!" she hisses sternly.

"What? I said 'excuse me'," I mutter back. Rolling her eyes, she slips her credit card into her wallet as she stands up, exiting the table. Internally pleased with myself, I follow Tori out to the parking lot. "Okay, so where's this festival?"

"Uh, near... Let's see, Sherman Oaks."

"Oh, is it that-um, that ah, what is it," I frown at the steering wheel which hummed underneath my fingertips.

"The Sherman Oaks Festival?" she chuckles slightly at my crossed eyes of impatience.

"Why are you laughing?"

"Nothing," Tori looks away, smirking, "I just like that stupid look on your face."

"Which one? _What one_?" I plead, pulling out to the street.

"When you cross your eyes... I remember you doing that whenever I was acting and messed up on a line. I may have done it on purpose a couple of times."

"Really? Made my brain hurt just for your sake of pleasure?"

"It's not my fault if you do that. Besides, it wasn't a lot of times- just all of the times after those first few months of Hollywood Arts."

" _Jesus Vega_ ," I snap playfully, hitting her shoulder.

"Ow!" she yelps, laughing as her hand rubs it, "But yeah, it's the Sherman Oaks Festival. They have all of these cool stuff there for sale, it is _insane_..."

"Yeah, I remember going to it some years with my dad," I mutter quietly, thinking of some of the rides they would have.

"Really?"

"Yeah. 'Course, that was before he started, you know. But it was good, at least he tried to make some good memories before everything went to shit." I stop almost abruptly as the wheels halt at the red light, feeling some warmth on my thigh. My gaze turns to brown eyes glimmering at me and a small smile stretches across both of our lips, "At least now, and then I suppose, I have you."

"Awwww."

 _"Tori_ ," I growl, rolling my eyes at her gleeful grin.

"What?" she smirks before murmuring in a low, husked whisper, "Thank you Jade, it means a lot... And I have you too, we have each other- lights green."

"Way to keep the moment going."

"Oh hush up..." As the car continues its journey along the streets, I snicker slightly. once I caught Tori's glare, however, it increases in volume until she finally joins in. After it died down the car rolled right up to the festival, parking along the grass since everybody else didn't have the capacity to think about my car on the parking lot.

Our pace strolls around the grounds, following no particular path as we weave through some of the tents. Calls for someone to buy their jewelry or whatever reaches my ears though I don't care. Not with Tori by my side anyway. "You want ice cream?" she murmurs after a short silence.

"No."

"Shaved ice?"

"No."

"Oh, um..." her brows furrow, "Pretzel?"

"No."

"Hot dog?"

" _No._ "

"Well what do you want to eat?" she pouts, crossing her arms loosely.

A smirk stretches across my face as I glance at her. "You," I whisper quietly in her ear thickly, earning a slight chuckle.

"Well, as much as that sounds- Jade, how are you going to get a meal out of..."

"Of what?"

"Um... _that_ ," she blushes slightly.

"I know how," I push out my chest confidently. My eyes switch to hers, and I grin at the dark eyes as she frowns slightly. "And I know you want it..."

"How about we eat lunch and dinner first," she rolls her eyes, giving a coy smile as I wrap my arms around her shoulders. Eventually I go with a sprite while she grabs a pretzel over by a bigger tent. As Tori does so, my eyes wonder over to a bigger tent with multiple tables inside. On those multiple tables were various antique weapons.

Curious, I stroll in, momentarily forgetting about Vega, and gaze down at the rows of knives. Many were engraved with designs, filling the metal with leaves or flowers as if the person who made them became bored and doodled. I nearly lose interest completely before I spot a long row of western pistols. Shrugging slightly, my steps make my way towards them, skimming the labels as I went along. And then, one caught my eye as I nearly stepped away from it.

From prior research about pistols, I know that this was a Colt Peacemaker, though it was difficult to say which year for this one since it looked custom made. My eyes knit together slightly as I gazed down, staring at the dark, auburn wood. Past the handle, the metal was almost like a darker silver, engraved with a finely polished copper of twisting vines, becoming less frequent as they curled along the barrel. The barrel, to my slight pleasure, was roughly around five inches, completing this magnificent prize. As it lay there on a fine, maroon pillow, my eyes flicker over to a card.

_Made approximately in the Mid-1800's, this pistol has been passed around for few generations, lost several times. The first rumored owner was an unknown sheriff in Skull-Canyon county who possibly gave it to his daughter, one of the 'Bullet Rangers' remembered in/as South West legends._

"Jade?" a voice snatches me from my thoughts. My body flinches, grasping a cup full of sprite as I did so.

"Hey Tori, look at this..." I murmur, not taking my eyes off the weapon. She gazes down and I feel her go slightly stiff, frowning just as I had at the pistol.

"Look," she pointed at the engraving, and I notice small numbers along a long piece of vine. It read ' _2.19.1833-12:37_ '. "Jade, this is kind of creepy..."

"Why? It looks kind of cool," I turn my head, pierced eyebrow raised at her.

"No, I mean I love the design but, that date is my birthday and the _time_ is exactly the same..."

"Whoa..." my eyes widen at the pistol, gaining a new respect and awe of it. "And look at those numbers," I point to the price.

" _$32,560?_ Holy shit!" she cursed under her breath.

"You should have seen the blades that went along with it," we hear a chuckle behind us. Our heads whip around, looking at a older man with a black hat and boots.

"What blades?" I murmur, becoming a bit excited.

"Both of the members of the Bullet Duet, they say, had their unique and own weapon. That right there," he gestures to the Colt Peacemaker, "was one of them. The other was scissors though someone broke into my house and stole 'em a few years back. I think it was 'bout 2014, maybe 15..."

" _Scissors?_ " I whisper, my voice cracking under my enthusiasm.

"Yessum," he nodded, grinning, "Cost 'bout the same as this here pistol. Shame really, both won' sell as much as I think they should have, even when I had both of 'em together."

"Maybe it's the price that scares them off," Tori mutters, looking back at it.

"Ah, yeah. But that's a rare metal that, I mean for its time. Should be 'bout half a million at most with the blackening on it. Not many would do that and what's extremely strange is that's almost stainless steel righ' there..."

"And that's strange because?" Tori asks curiously.

"Well, the Bullet Duet was around during the 50's to the 80's before they died. The thought original owner was known to have it for a few decades before the 50's. Stainless steel, however, really hit the US in the 1870's."

"Yeah, that's really weird," I sigh.

"Now wait a minute... Aren't you two West and Vega?"

"Yep," we say in unison, popping the 'p'.

"Huh, been hearing rumors... Anyway, what's this about the engraved date?"

"Oh, it's nothing much. Just the date and time is the exact same as mine, other than the fact I wasn't born in the 1800's."

"Funny that, hey isn't your father a police officer?"

"Yeah... And the father was a- God this is surreal..." she mutters under her breath.

"My, my. Fancy that, and you said that you loved scissors?" he turns to me.

Before I can open my mouth, Tori snorts and snickers, "More like obsessed." For a moment I play with the idea of hitting her across the shoulder, although what good is it to whack someone for stating the obvious.

"I wouldn't say 'obsessed', more like 'extremely fond that it's pushing the limits'," I chuckle with her.

"Tell ye' what, I'll cut the price in half and you two can have it if you want..." he grins, a bargain flashing in his eyes. The two of us look at each other, then back at the pistol which sat longingly before we nodded. "Alright, it's yours... Just here's some papers you need t' sign." As Tori, really, filled out the papers I noticed the sense of gratitude shot towards us as we claimed this prize. The rest of the time at the festival involved multiple rides and food before we dropped by once again and picked up the antique weapon.

"Hey, there's still a couple of bullets in it," Tori murmured as I drove back home.

"Don't shoot."

"Not going to, just want to try it when we get back," she chuckles.

"Okay... Will the target be Berry?"

" _Jade_ , I'm not shooting my dog."

"Right, totally thought you would," I smirk, watching as she rolls her eyes. "Trina?"

"How about your ass?"

"Okay, never mind... I'm dropping it," I stammer, feeling my but tense. She began to laugh and I couldn't help but join in after that.

-o0o-

In my backyard, yes I actually do have one, I stand on the side, watching Tori. She stands straight and tall, aiming at the white paper on an old trash can. I cringe slightly as I hear the loud crack, putting a hole right through the center of the lazily draw target. "Did I hit it?" she calls, the pistol smoking slightly.

"Dead center, well, a bit to the right," I call out.

"Yeah, I always have..." she mutters, jogging over. "Well, I'll keep the last one in," Tori decides.

"Alright, now are we going to go or not?"

"To what?" she asks blankly.

"The restaurant..."

"Oh yeah. Let's so I won't hear my sister's rants for several months."

"Okay, and then after can we-"

"Yes Jade," she rolls her eyes at my impatient pleas, setting down the pistol before pulling me into a long, heated kiss.

"Okay, just wanted to make sure."

About an hour later we head off, driving about ten minutes over to a restaurant, meeting Trina and Charles, who started dating. We were seated at a booth off to the side, where nobody really looked over unless they were the waitress serving the meal. Once the appetizer was cleared, Trina nearly bolted off to the bathroom, leaving the three of us sitting. "So, uh, how much do you like Trina?" Tori asks, sipping on her drink.

"She's a lot of personality," he chuckles at our enthusiastic nods, "But when you see past that, she's a genuine person which I like."

"Could you help me see it," I smirk slightly.

"Sure... Jade."

"Not calling me 'Miss West' before the premiere?"

"Uh, that would be kind of weird," Charles pointed out as I nod in agreement. "When is it anyway?"

"January 27th, so a month or so away," I answer. There was a sudden ringing and all three of us look around before Charles looks down and snatches his phone from his pocket.

"Hello, oh... hey grandma," he sighs, "I'm gonna take this." With that he stands up and walks out the restaurant, first going through the multiple turns along the tables.

"Well, looks like there's-" Tori begins with a grin, leaning in. I cup her cheek and pull her into a long, deep kiss before her arms clutch my back. Just below my gut feels like a buzzing summer's day, you know, the time when it is ridiculously hot. A smirk takes over my lips as I hear a small moan come from Tori, giving me the chance to slip in my tongue-

"I leave you two for five minutes and you're down each other's throats." I make a strange noise as I pull away, wiping my mouth with my sleeve as I glare at Trina, who stands to the side with her hands on her hips.

"By seven minutes, half of our clothes would have been off," I smirk, earning a playful hit on the shoulder.

"You two already done it?" she asks protectively, sitting back down at her seat.

"Yeah... The night after we started 'officially' dating or whatever," Tori admits coyly.

" _Really_? The how many times-"

"More than ten," I almost snap. Looking over at the younger sister, I mutter, "I tried counting on my hands earlier and I lost count..."

"Jeez you two are horny bitches..."

" _What?_ "we both snap at Trina.

"You heard me."

"And when are you getting it?" Tori hisses half heartedly.

"Dunno, we're taking it slow unlike some people..." For a couple of minutes we just sit across from each other, staring before I shrug and mutter, "Well, I'm bored," before attacking Tori's lips again.

"Are they trying to fuck at our table?" I hear Charles ask, slightly amused.

"No, it would have been in the bathroom," Tori laughs, bringing everybody else, including a me, with her. As the dinner and eventual cake was devoured, we bade each other goodnight before driving away in our separate vehicles.

-o0o-

It's pretty dark in here, the door's closed anyway. The only light is my alarm clock which baths three of the four walls in a light, red glow. Even with the 'dim' light, I don't know how else to describe it, it doesn't stop me from crawling over Tori after she stripped her top half of clothes, teasing me. Hungrily I capture her lips, feeling so much emotion raging through that I can't keep up. All I know is that it's hot, searing even, and sends an absurd amount of tremors down to my gut.

"Get these off Jade," she almost snaps, taking off my jacket and long-sleeve for me. Licking my lips, I dive back in, kissing along her neck as her legs fold around my back. "God Jade..."

I tease the end of her pants, skimming the skin along it, feeling goose bumps erupt below the tips. I smirk at her shivers as I kiss my way down to her hardened nipples, already erect from the long walk through the hallway and stairs, marking every so often. My knee nudges in between her legs, guiding her further up the bed before I began to grind against it, feeling my underwear begin to dampen slightly.

My lips cup her left nipple as the other one is teased before curling into a grin as she lets out a deep, husky moan. My hips buck slightly into hers, and I let out a hitched breath. Before I completely abandoned her nipples, I suck on the other one, giving it its needed attention. I go back to her lips, moaning in between kisses as her hips grind against mine.

"J-Jade... don't stop- _fuck_ ," she breathes in my ear, my face pulling into a contorted cringe as I felt her warm breath. So, instead of stopping, I go faster and harder. Her nails scratch across my back as I feel waves plummet through, and within minutes my hands grip the sheets, knuckles white (I'm assuming here), moaning Tori's name as I jerk slightly before collapsing on her, who was riding her own.

I clamber back over, planting sweet soft kisses, following as she scooted her way to the pillows. As we kiss gingerly, our pants and underwear eventually go to the floor, leaving us completely naked. Deciding to get what I wanted earlier, I made my way casually down and began to kiss around her inner thigh. Tori opened up more, and I take my chance, licking the wet area with a satisfied moan.

My licks start slow, collecting what's already there, before I begin to suck on her hardened nub. As the seconds pass, I smirk to myself as I listen to the music in my ears, becoming more aggressive in my 'assault', if you will. My tongue scraps the surface of her clit, taking another deep moan that nearly made me tremble myself. Her hips buck slightly, even though she tries to contain them the best she can as her hand grasps her right nipple.

While my hand snakes down to tease my own, I begin to work a bit faster, feeling more juices stream into my mouth as I gripped her thigh with my left hand. After a few more minutes, I feel her have another, yet smaller, orgasm and I immediately stop playing with myself, wanting her lips instead. So, after I lapped up the rest of her juices, I climb back over and give soft, pepper kisses along her neck before her lips.

"That was nice..." she murmurs quietly.

"Yeah, but I still want more," I mumble back.

"Of course you do," she smiles, "Just a quick rest, 'k?"

"Yup." I nuzzle right under her chin, my hand lazily playing with the few strands of hair on her shoulder. As I grow bored, I close my eyes and smile as I feel gentle strokes on my back. By this time, I can now identify the different schedules before hand based on the sex. Huh, that sounded better in my head... oh well. Anyway, the times when we can't keep it down or we don't have time to reach downstairs, so we go in the library or living room, are the ones when we don't stop for hours straight. They're fun, sporadic and tiring, God are they tiring. But, as much as I love those, these tamer sessions are the ones I tend to prefer, surprisingly. See, I can feel the raw, underlying emotion a lot better and moments like these, the breaks, is when I can just listen to time tick away as Tori's heart beats beneath my ear-

_Beep, beep._

And when we can get interupted easily- "Who the fuck's that?" I growl as Tori reaches for her phone.

"Hello?" Tori murmurs, giving me a small pat in between strokes as an answer.

"Hey! Guess what..." I hear Trina on the other end as Tori lazily puts the call on speaker, allowing the now free hand to caress my wrist tattoo laying on her chest.

"What?" she drawls out.

"I had sex in a car, and you didn't. I had sex in a car, and you didn't," she chants with a hyper tone.

"What about in your own library, living room, guest room, temporary recording studio, kitchen-"

"I get it, you fuck a lot. Don't take away my accomplishment."

"Aww," I sigh in a mockery tone, "Did Trina get jealous of her sister making out with a hot chick?"

"Jade," both said at once, Tori giggling while Trina mortified.

"Yeah, that's me... Charles, are you back there?"

"Uh, huh- Yes I'm not asleep Trina, I enjoy the phone calls after. They're funny," I hear a small voice on the line.

"Oh, well... Um, how are you guys doing?"

"Go-"

"You interrupted us, now go away before I crawl through the phone and wring a wire around your neck," I spat visciously.

"...Tori? Jade's being mean... And cruel..." Trina whines.

"I can't do anything about it," Tori murmurs, "But yeah, I'm gonna go if you're going to start asking for details."

"What? How long's this 'session' anyway, I want to know!"

"Trina, you really don't want to know about our sex life, it's too much for you to handle," Tori smirks cockily, "Besides, we'll be done in a few hours."

"How long can lesbians do it?!" she asks, and I hear the hysterical chucking from a few seconds before morph into laughter.

"Bye Trina..." the younger sister mutters, hanging up. "God my sister, I'm glad she has Charles but seriously... She needs to butt out before she just watches us."

"Why is she your sister again?"

"I don't know," she shrugs, sitting up and climbing out of bed, "But I'm going to take a shower so..." I smirk at hers, following her through the door inside.


	11. Chapter 11

My eyes were firmly shut as my hands grasped the mug in them; I was going to need that coffee tonight. I could feel the steam shimmering out from it, waiting for me to dip back down and drink. A warmth also was at my calves, Salem, as he purred his thank you for the morning. "Jade?"

I blink my eyes open, rays hitting them as I gave a slight hiss. "Hmm?"

"You nervous for the premiere?" I heard a soft, soothing voice come closer.

"Why would I be nervous? It's not like people that I care about are watching it for the first time..." my eyes furrow as I open them again.

"Jade," Tori murmurs close to me, wrapping her arms around me loosely, "I'll be there with you, every step of the way."

Setting down the mug, I do the same, muttering a thanks before gibing a long kiss. Since that date a few weeks ago I've gotten increasingly stressed just from the anticipation of waiting for this night alone. I couldn't believe it was tonight even. Why was I so nervous for this one night? Sure I was before with my others but not as nearly as this. Perhaps it is because this one gave me so much already and I've barely gotten the profit. It gave me Tori and more friends, and just Tori really.

"Tori?"

"Hmm?"

"Um, thanks for eh, sticking with me..."

"No problem Jade, wouldn't leave you for the world." My arms clung tighter as she said that; I felt her smile against my neck. "Do you want to watch something on the TV for a bit?"

"Anything but celebrities underwater..."

"Aww," she pouted playfully. I follow the half-Latina over to the couch and snuggled up against her as the blanket folded over us. As it switched on, I mentally take a break and just thought about the past few weeks as a whole.

-o0o-

It was either the day after or the day when Tori and I woke from our tired nightly activities when a phone call rang by our bedside table. As it was her phone, Vega picked it up and brought it to her ear, speaking softly through her husky, morning voice. While she answered the call, I remained quiet, head on her chest as I listened to her voice. "Hello?"

"Hey sweetie," I hear Mr. Vega on the other end.

"Oh, hey dad... Why are you calling this early?"

"Did I wake you up?" he muttered, slightly concerned.

"No, you didn't," she said honestly, "I was stirring anyway."

"Okay, good. So you told your mom?"

"Yeah, she didn't take it well but it's fine, I'm living at Jade's."

"That's good, that's good," he yawned slightly, "So does she protect you?"

"Yes dad, she does a fine job." I smile slightly as I felt her free left hand start to stroke my back just as it had the night prior.

"Okay, so what do you see in her? Not to be rude, or anything. I just remember high school is all."

"She's charming, witty and a good character once you dig deep enough," Tori put simply.

"That's nice, well I did speak with your mother as I moved out to the small apartment and told her to give you a call, apologizing. She may not be able to accept it completely but at least she could understand a bit."

"Okay, yeah I had a feeling I would do sometime or later."

"That a girl, now I'll have to go because I just got back from work so talk to you later?"

"Talk to you later, okay right, bye... Love you." As she set the device back on the table, I shirt my weight and lift myself up slightly, looking in her eyes.

"It'll be fine Tori," I smile.

"Thanks Jade, just worried a bit..."

"That's alright," I say, planting a couple of kisses that end up trailing down her neck. "I'm here anyway."

-o0o-

A few days after that had defidently made life easier, starting with a call from Tori's mom as I was in the shower. As I climbed out and wrapped a towel around my waist, I walked into the bedroom, and saw her sit on the bed with a confused smile. "What happened?" I ask, raising my pierced eyebrow.

"My mom called..."

"And?" I murmur, sitting down right next to her.

"She seems to be trying to be fine with it, well, more like trying to understand it... I'm just not sure if it was an apology or a test to see if you can give one."

"I would take it either way, better than drunken yells or shit like that." I feel her nod in agreement as she leaned against me, creating a soft warmth against my chest. Hours later, however, it was my turn. I had decided to unblock Beck's number, just to give him the benefit of the doubt. As unconsciously promised, he did call within the week. As Tori was in the shower, I answered my phone hesitantly.

"Hey," he mumbled in a sultry voice.

"Hey..." I mumble back in my own.

"So, um... How you doing with Tori?"

"Good so far."

"That's good," he seemed to nod on the other end. "Listen, about everything... I'm sorry, I never meant to hurt you, I hope you know that. I just got so used to you bringing in money that I forgot my own dreams and... yeah."

"Apology accepted," I grin slightly.

"I did join a group to help with it," Beck coughed, "So it'll be better in the future."

"That's nice Beck, glad you are doing well."

"Working at a grocery store instead of Hollywood but, hey, got to start somewhere right?" I enjoyed the rest of hat conversation, knowing I would at least have a good friend from Beck. Once the phone was put down, Tori wrapped her arms around me and sighed, whispering, "They'll be a while but at least they've come around some now."

"Yes they have," I agreed happily.

-o0o-

My pace quickened as I go back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, _back and forth_. "Jade?" I grin slightly as my gaze was picked up, meeting Tori in a long, dark purple dress with her hair straightened. While I preferred her normal hair style, she looked nice tonight. "You look good in a tie," she murmurs, hands playing with the emerald green tie as I smirked into a kiss.

"Been trying it out every so often, you ready?"

"You ready?"

"...Think so," I nod, taking Tori by the arm and through the front door. At the curb there was a limousine that sat, waiting patiently. Once we entered, I tap my fingers nervously against the door, waiting for this night to be all over. As my eyes close, I feel a hand clasp around my own, squeezing comfortingly.

"It'll be good Jade, the early critics said it was good so imagine the ones coming tonight."

"Yeah... that's what I am imagining."

"Jade, it'll be all right. Andre, Cat, Trina, Charles and my dad will be there for you, supporting you with me."

"Thanks sweets," I murmur, nuzzling against her. Once again I feel my eyelids close and, before I know it, we're there. With many flashing cameras, I felt like a deer in the middle of the road. Luckily I had Tori there with me, guiding me across the red carpet, smiling at the cameras. Some people would come up and ask questions, few of them rude and others asking kindly about our relationship. 'Course, we ignored the asses and answered the genuine, curious ones.

Once in the theatre, I nearly drown myself in a malt and Twix, feeling the need for chocolate and sugar. After a good half hour, Tori spots the part of our group that came and waved them over. "Hey chica, been looking at the news. Thought it was a hoax 'til now, sorry..." Andre chuckles as he made his way over here.

"I did tell you didn't I?" Cat mutters before giving both of us a hug. "I'm happy for you two anyway-Jade did those get bigger?"

"That's for Tori to know and you to never know," I hiss out of anxiety. Another gentle squeeze was gripped in my hands, which I felt beads of sweat on them. God I'm really nervous if I'm actually fucking sweating...

We were guided into the main screening room and sat down to enjoy my film. My foot tapped slightly as Tori caressed my forearm, sending nice, comforting waves through my system. As the lights dimmed and the screen flashed, I suddenly felt my nervous drain away, thinking about a particular scene that was my favorite. Once it did come up, however, Andre and Cat both gawked as Tori blushed and I smirked at 'Liza' going at it. "Hey, at least it's not porn," I whisper, earning a soft chuckle from her.

After the showing was done, our larger group, including myself and Tori, Andre, Cat, Trina, Charles, Mr. Vega, went out and dined at the restaurant held next door. All I can say is good food, good temperature and a good night. Especially went I went home, thinking about Tori's scene. Everything was nice, and I wouldn't change it for the world.

**-Four Years Later-**

I heaved a heavy sigh as I plopped down on the bed, "God that took forever."

"I hear you Jade," Tori nodded, "That scene took a long time."

"I know, and to think that the deadline is months away." I grin slightly as Tori giggles.

"So? Should we go outside to our little table and little candle and little chairs?"

"The ones Cat set up earlier?"

"Uh, huh," Tori nods.

"Alright, yeah I'm hungry anyway."

"Good, better to eat hungry than stuffed," she murmurs more to herself than to me. I follow her outside, sitting down across from her on the patio, overlooking the night's lights. Cat and Trina, who strode right outside with us, set our food and drinks then whisked right back inside. Raising my eyebrow slightly, I watch as they bolt across the room with the huge windows up to where blinds rustled.

As the minutes pass, I enjoy the small conversation Tori makes and the food put on my plate, which was "cooked" by Tori and not Cat at all. Once it had died down, however, I listen quietly to the night buzz, which slightly annoys me still, and watch as my love become ever so nervous. "Tori?"

"Hmm?"

"What are you nervous about?" I mutter, cocking my head to the side.

"Uh... Jade?"

"That's me since I was born."

"Right," she smiles, brown eyes becoming more relaxed, "I just want you to know while we may have started off on the wrong footing and, well, yeah..."

"I wouldn't say so... People always argue, kiss boyfriends as stage kisses and pour coffee on their heads as they play as dogs." We both laugh softly at that, knowing full well that isn't how people should first remember each other.

"Yes, but I feel most comfortable with you and relaxed. I know you know this, but I love you so much-" I smile softly as she fidgeted nervously, "and I guess it's why I want to spend the rest of my life with you... Jade West?" I feel a knot in my throat as she gets off her chair and kneels down, an opened box in her hands, "Will you marry me?"

Standing up, my hands over my mouth and my eyes flickering at the window upstairs, I smirk and put a finger over my lips. Tori only frowned slightly and looked very confused before I shrieked, "WHY WOULD I EVER WANT TO MARRY YOU TORI? WHY DID YOU HAVE TO ASK SO SOON?" I laugh quietly as I heard cries from inside and the blinds jerked away from the two. Setting myself down on my knees with Tori, I smirk at her rolled eyes and slight grin.

"My God Jade..."

"Tori," I whisper, looking into her brown eyes, "I love you so much, why would I ever say no? Yes, I will marry you." My arms wrap around her neck as hers my back, "You're the fucking best thing that's happened to me," I cry slightly in her shoulder.

"Jade..."

"Yes?"

Tori pulled back, smiling kindly before remarking, "You are such an ass."

"Hey, you're the one marrying this ass."

"I love you Jade," she mumbles as her lips connect with mine.

"I love you too Tori," I murmur before pulling her in for another one.


End file.
